Chapter 63
The Heavenly Dragon Secret Grounds (1)
Beon Saeng’s daily routine was a busy one.
As soon as he woke up, he completed his dawn training, then headed straight to the Hyeoncheon Unit to clean Baek So-cheon’s office and the administrative room where they worked.
In the mornings, he assisted Im Chung with his duties. Whenever he had spare time, he devoted himself to martial arts training.
By now, he could execute the techniques Baek So-cheon had taught him with considerable smoothness.
He simply trusted Baek So-cheon and repeated them over and over again.
Beon Saeng spent the entire day absorbed in one task or another.
Never in his life had he worked this hard.
Just as merchants sometimes said that earning money was more enjoyable than spending it, there were times when working could be more satisfying than playing.
That was exactly how Beon Saeng felt these days.
That day, after finishing his work for the Hyeoncheon Unit, he found a brief opening and was heading outside to train when he encountered an old man in the corridor.
As always, Beon Saeng bowed politely.
“Welcome.”
“Good to see you. Where is Unit Leader Baek’s office?”
“On the top floor. I’ll guide you there.”
“That won’t be necessary. I can find it myself.”
“Yes, sir.”
Since Im Chung was upstairs, Beon Saeng simply continued outside.
However, his steps came to a halt at the end of the corridor.
An ominous feeling began creeping up his spine.
The moment he stepped through the entrance, he understood why.
Warriors of the Secret Guard were stationed around the building.
“Ahem!”
The old man he had just passed and casually greeted was none other than the Murim Alliance Leader.
Aaaaaaagh!
Beon Saeng screamed inwardly.
Why do only people this important keep coming here?
Beon Saeng was suffering every possible side effect of serving Baek So-cheon at close range.
***
Ak So-gun entered Baek So-cheon’s office.
“Alliance Leader.”
Baek So-cheon rose from his seat.
Ak So-gun remained standing at the entrance, silently gazing at him.
He had regained consciousness that morning and heard everything that had happened from On Byeok-hwa.
He had no memory of anything after leaving the bedchamber where the two of them had been together.
He learned that Heavenly Twin Gu had been implanted inside both him and Baek So-cheon, and that it was the reason he had come to hate Baek So-cheon so intensely.
The moment Ak So-gun saw him, his emotions surged.
The man standing before him was no longer the Baek So-cheon whose very presence had caused him unbearable pain.
He was once again the Baek So-cheon whom Ak So-gun had cherished like his own child.
Could a person’s heart truly change so drastically?
With a trembling voice, Ak So-gun called his name.
“So-cheon.”
“Alliance Leader.”
Baek So-cheon’s voice trembled just as much as his eyes.
“Are you feeling all right?”
Instead of answering, Ak So-gun strode forward and embraced him tightly.
“I’m sorry. I am truly sorry.”
Ak So-gun felt terribly guilty toward Baek So-cheon.
No matter how powerful the Gu had been, he could not forgive himself for failing to overcome it despite being the leader of the Murim Alliance.
“No, Alliance Leader. I misunderstood you. I am the one who should apologize.”
“No. Everything was my fault.”
Something warm fell against the back of Baek So-cheon’s neck.
They were the Alliance Leader’s tears.
Baek So-cheon’s eyes immediately reddened.
He tried to hold back his tears, but he could not stop the warmth dripping onto his neck from spreading into his own heart.
All the emotions he had endured over the past three years surged upward at once.
Tears began streaming down Baek So-cheon’s face.
Once they started, they would not stop.
The harder he tried to restrain them, the more they flowed.
Baek So-cheon clenched his teeth to keep himself from sobbing aloud.
The Alliance Leader kept apologizing, but Baek So-cheon believed he was the one who should be sorry.
“Let me have a look at your face.”
Ak So-gun slowly examined Baek So-cheon.
“Simply seeing your face makes me this happy...”
Ak So-gun wiped Baek So-cheon’s tears with his sleeve.
Yet tears were still flowing down between the deep wrinkles on Ak So-gun’s own face.
“So-cheon, welcome back.”
Baek So-cheon pulled Ak So-gun into another fierce embrace.
This time, his hot tears soaked the Alliance Leader’s shoulder.
“Alliance Leader, welcome back.”
***
Once their emotions had settled, the two sat across from each other, and Ak So-gun began recounting what had happened.
“When you were lying in the infirmary, I tried to visit you several times. But the closer I got, the more dizzy and nauseated I became.
“For some reason, every time I tried to see you, my body began to hurt.
“I would think that I could visit later, and strangely enough, it became easy to give up. The moment I decided not to see you, I felt relieved.
“When I finally did see you, there was a foul stench coming from your body. It was a smell I never wanted to experience again.
“Looking back now, the Gu must have been deceiving my senses.”
And that was not all.
As the days passed, Ak So-gun’s negative thoughts toward Baek So-cheon continued to intensify.
For no clear reason, he simply disliked and hated him.
That led to all kinds of thoughts.
Eventually, he even began hearing a voice inside his head insulting Baek So-cheon.
“I kept imagining you traveling around speaking ill of me.
“I also frequently dreamed that you betrayed me and joined the Cheokcheon Alliance.
“No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop those thoughts.”
“You resisted well. Had it been anyone else, I would have died several times over.”
That was the truth.
If it had not been Ak So-gun, no one could have endured the Gu for three years.
“The Gu wasn’t always active. There were times when I met you and felt nothing at all.
“But on those days, I would later be seized by such intense rage that I couldn’t fall asleep until dawn.”
Baek So-cheon could not even imagine how much Ak So-gun had suffered.
“They say it was the Blood Church Leader’s doing?”
“Yes. They say only Jeok Pa-rap, the Blood Church Leader’s master, was capable of controlling the Heavenly Twin Gu.”
“Then either he acted personally, or the Blood Church Leader did it.”
“Yes.”
Baek So-cheon made a silent vow.
He would never spare the people who had implanted the Heavenly Twin Gu.
“Do you think the Black Heaven Alliance Leader was involved as well?”
“He may have been, or perhaps not. The Cheokcheon Alliance and the Blood Church are allied now, but the Heavenly Twin Gu was implanted three or four years ago. At the time, their relationship was poor.”
Ak So-gun nodded.
The Blood Church had not participated in the great war between the orthodox and unorthodox factions.
The Blood Church Leader, Myeol Saeng, was believed to have entered closed-door cultivation, and the Blood Church had sealed its gates.
“So they closed their doors publicly while moving secretly behind the scenes.”
“Yes.”
Baek So-cheon carefully asked a question to confirm something.
“Was the recent incident involving the Four Shadow Sect commissioned by you, Alliance Leader?”
That morning, Zhuge Hyeon had brought him the bank draft he had ordered investigated.
Astonishingly, the draft found on the Blood Fang Three Wolves—the men who had staged the hostage incident—had originated from the Alliance Leader’s Hall.
Ak So-gun sighed and nodded.
“I somehow managed to endure until then... but after I saw the words ‘Slay Heaven’ carved into the roof of my ancestral home, I believe the last of my willpower collapsed.”
When he came to his senses, Ak So-gun found himself standing alone on the roof of his family estate after shaking off even his guards, staring down at words written in blood.
Slay Heaven.
The character for Heaven did not refer to the Alliance Leader.
It referred to the Cheon in Baek So-cheon’s name.
Because Ak So-gun had resisted for so long, the Blood Church Leader had infused the perfected Blood Heaven Qi with corrupt energy and used it to shatter Ak So-gun’s remaining will.
That made it clear that the mastermind behind the incident had been Myeol Saeng, the Blood Church Leader.
“At first, I thought it had all been a dream.
“I couldn’t believe that I had shaken off every guard, gone alone to meet scum like them, and personally commissioned the job.
“I do remember telling them that they were absolutely forbidden from killing any hostages.
“I have committed an unforgivable crime.”
“It can be forgiven. No innocent person died.”
The only ones who had died were the Blood Fang Three Wolves, men who had committed countless atrocities.
“You nearly died because of me.”
“Not because of you, Alliance Leader. Because of the Heavenly Twin Gu.
“And you never completely surrendered to it.
“If you had genuinely wanted me dead, you would have hired experts far stronger than the Blood Fang Three Wolves.”
The Alliance Leader’s final unconscious desire not to kill Baek So-cheon had influenced his decision.
Even at the very end, he had retained the will to prevent innocent people from being sacrificed.
Only now did Baek So-cheon understand why the Blood Fang Three Wolves had not killed a single hostage.
The Alliance Leader had told them they would not be paid if any hostages died.
Baek So-cheon had found it strange that the hostage incident ended without a single casualty.
That, too, had been because of Ak So-gun.
Baek So-cheon had assumed the criminals would use the hostages while escaping, but they must have prepared some other method of escape.
“Alliance Leader, what we need now is not self-reproach, but countermeasures.
“We must stop them somehow and punish them for what they have done.”
Ak So-gun nodded and rose from his seat.
“There is somewhere I want to take you. Come with me.”
***
Ak So-gun led Baek So-cheon out of the Hyeoncheon Unit’s building.
Passing warriors were startled to see the two walking side by side.
It was a sight no one had witnessed in the past three years.
Iron Sword Corps Leader Chung Yang and Hwang Il-bi happened to be passing nearby and saw them as well.
“Hah!”
Chung Yang stared in stunned disbelief at how warmly the two were behaving.
Hwang Il-bi, however, was deeply moved.
Ah! The two of them have finally reconciled!
The Alliance Leader and Baek So-cheon were smiling brightly at each other as they walked.
It was something no one had seen even once in the past three years.
Hwang Il-bi was so delighted that he wanted to shout.
As expected, our Corps Leader is the greatest! Long live the Alliance Leader! Long live him ten thousand times!
After pouring out all his admiration for Baek So-cheon in his heart, he turned to Chung Yang beside him.
“Are you all right?”
Chung Yang replied,
“And if I’m not? Should I run over and demand an explanation from the Alliance Leader? You were shouting ‘long live the Alliance Leader’ in your head just now, weren’t you?”
His words were barbed, but neither his expression nor his tone seemed particularly angry.
Our Corps Leader truly is amazing. He even managed to change Corps Leader Chung’s heart.
As though reading his thoughts, Chung Yang snapped,
“Don’t even dream of abandoning us to join Unit Leader Baek!”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay rooted in the Iron Sword Corps, become its leader, and only then leave. Since you insisted on keeping me, you must make me Corps Leader one day!”
“That depends on how well you perform in the future.”
“Hah! Isn’t that the classic behavior of an exploitative superior? ‘Give me your loyalty first, and then you will receive your reward.’ People like that usually end up saying, ‘Circumstances have changed. Who else could understand me but you?’”
“Have you ever given me any loyalty to begin with?”
“I’m always loyal!”
“Then give me more.”
As Hwang Il-bi looked at Chung Yang, a thought occurred to him.
Even affection born from resentment is frightening.
After seeing him so often, there were moments when even this side of Chung Yang seemed endearing.
Meanwhile, Baek So-cheon and Ak So-gun disappeared in the direction of the Alliance Leader’s Hall.
Although they were gone, the lingering impression remained.
“If we end up fighting the Cheokcheon Alliance, I think we can win now.”
Normally, Chung Yang would have mocked him for making such a fuss merely because two people were walking together.
Instead, he said something completely unexpected.
“If they receive their salaries and all that affection, they had better earn their keep.”
It seemed he had felt something similar.
Then again, who could look at that scene without feeling reassured?
Hwang Il-bi gazed toward the place where Baek So-cheon and the Alliance Leader had vanished.
Stay strong, both of you.
***
Ak So-gun led Baek So-cheon into the Alliance Leader’s Hall.
The two crossed through the building and entered the rear garden.
As expected of the Alliance Leader’s residence, Baek So-cheon could sense formidable ambush positions throughout the grounds.
They passed through them all, opened a gate in the garden’s rear wall, and stepped outside.
Beyond it stood a dense bamboo forest.
Even Baek So-cheon had never been here before.
The two stopped before the grove.
From the profound energy emanating within, Baek So-cheon immediately realized that a formation had been deployed there.
Moreover, the immensely powerful and mysterious energy—unlike anything he had felt from another formation—revealed just how extraordinary it was.
“This is the Seven Stars Nine Palaces Formation.”
It was known as one of the most difficult formations in existence to decipher.
The moment someone stepped in the wrong place, they would become lost forever, unable to escape its terrifying labyrinth.
“Follow exactly where I step. Memorize the route through the Life Gate.”
“Understood.”
Ak So-gun walked ahead, and Baek So-cheon followed behind him.
This was no ordinary stroll through a bamboo forest.
Baek So-cheon carefully stepped only on the exact spots where Ak So-gun had placed his feet.
Memorizing the Life Gate’s route was not particularly difficult for him.
For an ordinary person, memorizing another person’s every footstep would have been nearly impossible.
However, Baek So-cheon had always possessed an unusually sharp memory for anything related to martial arts or the martial world.
After passing through the Seven Stars Nine Palaces Formation, a stone wall appeared ahead.
Words had been carved upon its surface, revealing the identity of the place.
Heavenly Dragon Secret Grounds.
Located within the most concealed depths of the Murim Alliance, this was a secret place that only the Murim Alliance Leader was permitted to enter.
Even Pung Geuk-an, Ak So-gun’s most trusted guard, had never set foot inside.
Ak So-gun placed his palm against a stone panel beside the wall, which bore the engraving of a hand, and infused it with internal energy.
The stone wall would open only when internal energy was circulated through it in a specific manner.
The precise circulation method was passed down exclusively from one Murim Alliance Leader to the next.
Anyone who attempted to force the entrance open would be killed by the most dangerous mechanisms hidden anywhere within the Murim Alliance.
Once Ak So-gun finished infusing his internal energy, the stone wall began to move.
Rrrrrumble.
For the first time in many years, the entrance to the Heavenly Dragon Secret Grounds opened wide.