Chapter 15: Eightfold Confusion
After the message from Ghost Immortal was delivered, the hardliners of Mount Dian who had insisted on an attack shut their mouths, and strength shifted toward the moderates’ call to “contain the situation.”
If even the Taiyi Hall Master, their strongest expert, had been stopped from the moment he drew his sword, then they had to admit that the opponent was someone Mount Dian could not deal with.
The shock was so great that even Mount Dian’s Council of Elders—infamous for its hardline stance—came to the conclusion that they had to somehow contain the situation.
In that process, opinions were voiced that, if necessary, they should purchase rice through the Law State or Đại Việt and give as much as was demanded.
It would cost wealth, but the judgment was that it was better than having their disciples injured and the sect placed in danger.
The hardline elders were deeply shaken by the realization that their earlier judgment had endangered the sect, and that the experts of their own faction—whom they had trusted without doubt—had been utterly unable to display their strength.
So much so that, even after the meeting ended, scarcely any elders rose to leave their seats.
Nearly all of them were sitting there, unable to stand, with vacant expressions.
Still, it was not as though everyone could remain stunned forever. Mustering his strength, the Sect Master summoned Elder Jaehwa and sat facing him in his residence.
“Heh heh… Should this be called a disaster, or should I be grateful that no disciples died? Truly, this is a most vexing affair.”
To the Sect Master’s awkward laugh, Elder Jaehwa replied cautiously.
“Even so, is it not a relief that, despite clashing with Emperor Salyejin of the Demonic Cult, no one died or suffered severe injuries?”
“That is true. It is a blessing amid misfortune that no disciples died or were gravely wounded, but if this matter leaks outside, how are we to endure that shame and humiliation….”
The Sect Master of Mount Dian trailed off, too troubled to continue.
After all, they had committed as much as eighty percent of their experts and nearly half of their total strength, yet had failed to properly touch even a fingertip of the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult.
If that story leaked out, the thought of how Mount Dian’s incompetence would be bandied about by the martial world’s gossipmongers was bleak.
As the Sect Master agonized over whether there was any way to avoid that, Elder Jaehwa spoke up cautiously.
“What if we give him the rice, but ask him to keep silent?”
“Would he accept such a request?”
“If we give him a lot….”
“A lot?”
“Yes. Give him twice what he wants….”
In short, it was a suggestion to shut his mouth with a bribe.
Normally, it would have earned a sharp rebuke of “nonsense,” but—
“Then would you step forward and try, Elder? If you succeed, I will see to it that you retain that post even in next year’s reassignment.”
It was Elder Jaehwa. Even for a Taoist sect like Mount Dian, it was a position with no small amount of benefits.
Of course, it was not that Elder Jaehwa sought to live lavishly off those benefits.
It simply meant that the lay disciples he had produced would receive a few more opportunities.
Even so, that alone earned Elder Jaehwa great respect from the lay disciples he had taught.
Because he was a master who took good care of his disciples’ hardships.
And not only that—those disciples, benefiting from his favor, donated large amounts of wealth to the main sect, bolstering the prestige of their master and the senior brothers at the headquarters.
Naturally, it became an object of envy. Though Taoists valued integrity and frugality above all, few could truly refuse such things.
“If you will do that much, I will certainly make it succeed.”
That was why Elder Jaehwa burned with enthusiasm.
The Beggars’ Sect, which had provided information at Mount Dian’s request, also confirmed that the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult had left the Heavenly Mountains.
Naturally, that information passed through the Beggars’ Sect’s main headquarters in Kaifeng, Henan, and was delivered to the Martial Alliance located in Luoyang, also in Henan.
Upon receiving the report, the Martial Alliance immediately convened an emergency meeting under the leadership of the Shaolin Divine Monk, who served as Alliance Leader, and after fierce debate, the decision reached was pursuit and assassination.
The Vice Cult Leader, who usually moved together with dozens or even hundreds of Demonic Cult warriors, had left the Heavenly Mountains accompanied by only a coachman and a guide. They judged it a golden opportunity.
The impatience that, if they missed this chance and the Vice Cult Leader reentered the Heavenly Mountains, they would struggle to find another opportunity, led them to commit the error of underestimating the abilities of the coachman and guide.
In truth, this was neither the fault of the Beggars’ Sect for failing to properly identify Flashing Light Blood and Cold Blade Blood, nor the fault of the Martial Alliance for underestimating the two men’s abilities.
It was only normal not to imagine that the Thirteen Bloods—experts who had reached the pinnacle even among great sects—would step forward merely as a coachman and a guide.
Thus, the Martial Alliance’s assassination force focused its efforts on subduing the Vice Cult Leader.
At the forefront was the Taiji Sword Emperor of Wudang, one of the Four Heavenly Forces who ruled the martial world and the strongest expert of the Hundred Paths. To support him, the Wudang Seven Swords, Wudang’s strongest combat unit, also joined.
As if that were still insufficient, excluding the Shaolin Divine Monk—who served both as abbot of Shaolin and leader of the Martial Alliance—the Four Diamond Guardians and the Eighteen Arhats, said to be the most powerful experts of Shaolin Temple, were added.
To guide them and to deal with the coachman and guide, the Beggars’ Sect also dispatched the Thirty-Six Dog-Beating Units.
Those who had mastered the first seven forms of the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms, famed as the Beggars’ Sect’s greatest technique, along with the Dog-Beating Formation, constituted the only permanent standing combat unit possessed by the Beggars’ Sect headquarters.
Because speed and secrecy were crucial, the hastily assembled assassination force of the Martial Alliance was composed solely of personnel from Shaolin and the Beggars’ Sect in Henan, where the Martial Alliance was located, and from Wudang in nearby Hubei.
They considered sending message hawks to Mount Dian to request cooperation, but out of concern for information leakage, the plan to send messages was ultimately rejected.
As soon as the assassination force was organized, each sect departed separately.
The worry was that if they gathered at the Martial Alliance first, it would only delay them further.
Accordingly, the Martial Alliance’s assassination force decided to assemble at Muli in Sichuan, which lay close to Yunnan, where Mount Dian was located.
While the assassination force was completing its assembly at Muli, Yul Han was receiving Elder Jaehwa of Mount Dian at a roadside lodging near Deokhong.
“Rice… you’re saying you’ll give twice as much?”
To Yul Han’s puzzled question, Elder Jaehwa nodded emphatically.
“Yes. You said you needed four thousand five hundred seom, so we will give you nine thousand—no, ten thousand seom.”
At Elder Jaehwa’s words, Yul Han looked at him steadily.
There was no such thing as something for nothing in this world.
A favor was a kind of debt that would someday, in some form, inevitably require repayment. Borrowing rice right now was no different.
That was why goodwill beyond a certain limit could only become a burden. The debt to be repaid would grow endlessly heavy.
And so—
“I appreciate the offer, but it will be enough if you lend me only what I need. Just four thousand five hundred seom.”
“No, why? We’re giving it to you outright.”
“I will accept the sentiment. And as for what you lend me, I will repay it promptly, as circumstances allow.”
“No, but why go to such lengths…?”
To Elder Jaehwa’s crestfallen question, Yul Han answered only with a gentle smile.
Of course, from Elder Jaehwa’s perspective as he faced Yul Han, it looked more like the twisted upward curl of lips on the verge of turning sour.
Because of that, Elder Jaehwa could not press further and had no choice but to retreat.
If he stubbornly insisted on achieving his aim here, and the Vice Cult Leader suddenly decided to cause a scene, he would not be able to handle it.
“Th-then we will proceed as you say.”
Elder Jaehwa nodded vigorously, yet felt bitter inside.
He himself was a martial artist who had trained extensively—never someone who had felt inferior wherever he went—but for some reason, before the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult, his knees trembled and cold sweat ran down his back.
In truth, this was a phenomenon most people experienced when dealing with Yul Han, and it was entirely due to Extreme Slaughter.
The dense killing intent of Extreme Slaughter that Yul Han had cultivated seeped out even unconsciously, suppressing the core of his opponent.
Even if a lion lay sprawled and full, the rabbit standing before it would still be terrified.
In any case, Elder Jaehwa returned to Mount Dian with a gloomy face, never once managing to broach the request that today’s events be kept secret.
Ghost Immortal, who had more or less guessed the reason Elder Jaehwa had personally come all this way, cautiously approached Yul Han and spoke.
“Um… about what happened this time between our sect and yourself—perhaps we could agree not to discuss it further….”
Yul Han readily accepted Ghost Immortal’s words, offered with a face full of embarrassment and without meeting his eyes.
“Let us do so. To receive help and then seize upon the other’s flaws to speak of them would be an unvirtuous act.”
As Ghost Immortal stood flustered at hearing the word “unvirtuous” come from the mouth of the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult, Yul Han offered a polite clasped-fist farewell and boarded his carriage.
He had no reason to remain any longer, having promised Elder Jaehwa that the rice would be sent to the Heavenly Mountains through the merchant caravan contracted by Mount Dian.
Thus, as though his business were finished, Yul Han departed without regret, and Ghost Immortal watched the carriage leaving with complicated eyes.
When Yul Han’s party departed the roadside lodging near Deokhong, it was just as the Martial Alliance’s assassination force had finished assembling at Muli in Sichuan, as agreed in advance.
Awaiting the assembled assassination force at Muli was the latest intelligence sent by the Beggars’ Sect.
“You’re saying the Vice Cult Leader has already entered Tibet after leaving Yunnan?”
The one who asked in a startled voice was the leader of the Thirty-Six Dog-Beating Units of the Beggars’ Sect, who was to serve as the assassination force’s guide.
At the question of the Thirty-Six Dog-Beating Unit Leader—also an elder of the Beggars’ Sect—the disciple who had come running with the latest information bowed his head.
“Yes, Elder.”
At the disciple’s confirmation, the Thirty-Six Dog-Beating Unit Leader turned a troubled expression toward the Taiji Sword Emperor, who stood as the de facto head of the assassination force.
“It seems we will have to enter Tibet.”
At his words, the Taiji Sword Emperor frowned.
“Tibet… This complicates matters.”
Tibet belonged to a different sphere of power than the Central Plains.
Thus, the Martial Alliance’s assassination force setting foot in Tibet could be interpreted as an invasion of Tibet by the Central Plains’ Martial Alliance.
Though things had been quiet for some time, Tibet was a region with power strong enough to threaten the Central Plains.
In fact, there were more than five instances in the history of the martial world where the Central Plains had suffered severe hardship at the hands of the Tibetan martial forces led by Potala Palace.
So hesitation was inevitable.
As the Taiji Sword Emperor hesitated, the leading monk of the Four Diamond Guardians dispatched from Shaolin stepped forward.
“The damage the Hundred Paths has suffered at that man’s hands is as high as mountains and as deep as the sea. If we miss this opportunity, such calamities will be repeated, and it will remain an eternal regret. Therefore, even if some recklessness is required, we must capture him this time.”
At the words of the leading monk who commanded the Four Diamond Guardians, the Taiji Sword Emperor set aside his inner conflict and nodded. He could not allow it to become an eternal regret.
“You are right. Let us move.”
At the Taiji Sword Emperor’s words as he rose, gripping his Pine-Patterned Ancient Sword, the assassination force once again came alive.