Chapter 479: Groundwork (4)

"So that's what happened."

"What are you going to do?"

"About what?"

"What do you mean, about what? Are you telling me you don't know what that fox Je Gal Munho has just done?"

"..."

"What we wanted was an overwhelming victory. Even if we won a bloody war, we could never hope to govern a continent this vast if we had to fight for every inch of it."

"..."

"That's why we need to keep the forces of the Central Plains thoroughly divided. We have to defeat them one by one. Isn't that what we've been working toward all this time?"

"And?"

"Are you pretending not to understand? That bastard has made the first move! He's just made it that much easier for himself to seize control of public opinion!"

"Public opinion and public sentiment are like fire. Start a greater blaze, and the smaller flames will naturally be swallowed by it."

"Surely you're not thinking of fighting fire with fire?"

"If that's what it takes."

"That's absurd! If we make a countermove now, we'll practically be confirming that one of the councillors is a spy!"

"Isn't that something you can leave to us?"

"...!"

"Don't worry. We value you highly. Planting an infiltrator inside the Martial Alliance is no easy feat."

"Damn it! Stop telling me how valuable I am and tell me what's actually going on!"

"What good would knowing do you? If you accidentally give something away, that sharp-witted strategist might realize you're a spy."

"You made me a spy without even trusting me that much?"

"It's precisely because I trust you that I gave you this role. I keep certain information from you as a precaution against unforeseen circumstances."

"..."

"Don't get so worked up. You're one of the chosen few. I don't like seeing you behave this way."

"Damn it. I never expected him to declare war so suddenly."

"That Je Gal Munho is a man without limits. No one can predict what he'll do next."

"That's exactly why—!"

"Which is why your role is so important. Whatever happens, don't let it surprise you. And above all, don't let it show."

"..."

"For the time being, stop passing along information."

"I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"If I suddenly stop doing something I've made a habit of, anyone investigating me might find the change suspicious. I'll carry on as usual."

"Hmm."

"If you want someone to be careful, warn the contact, not me."

"I knew you were someone I could rely on."

"Enough. Hearing you say that doesn't make me feel any better."

"There's no need to worry so much. You're one of the vanguard agents whose actions will determine when our Cult begins its advance. We don't entrust that responsibility to just anyone."

"You're unusually talkative today."

"Because you've stopped acting like yourself. Keeping you under control is part of my job, after all."

"Enough. You should go. I've calmed down."

"I'll return once things have quieted down."

FSSSH.

The man vanished as eerily as he had appeared.

It was a fascinating martial art, no matter how many times he witnessed it. In truth, he couldn't even tell whether it was martial arts or some kind of mystical technique. Whatever it was, he would dearly have loved to learn it.

"...I can't wait to purge this revolting True Qi from my body."

Countless martial artists dreamed of learning the supreme arts of the Nine Great Sects. If someone offered to teach even a single form properly, tens of thousands of martial artists would come running.

The man was a Transcendent Peak master who had cultivated those very arts to a level that would put him among their finest practitioners.

Yet he found the energy he had spent so long cultivating so repulsive that he wanted to expel it from his body.

He looked down at the mask in his hand.

A bright energy shimmered across its surface.

He put the mask back on.

******

"He did seem rather different."

Yeon Wi tilted his head at Tang Gwan's remark.

"What do you mean?"

"Clan Lord Je Gal."

"Ah."

The decisiveness and confidence Je Gal Munho had displayed during the meeting had been remarkable.

Tang Gwan had been impressed, though he hadn't said so aloud.

The Je Gal Munho he had known until now was cautious without being timid, stern without being particularly cold. In short, he had always struck Tang Gwan as the quintessential strategist.

But today had been different.

Beneath the cool, almost languid look in Je Gal Munho's eyes, a terrifying fury had burned. He hadn't said as much, but the knowledge that an enemy infiltrator had found a place within the sacred Martial Alliance had clearly enraged him beyond measure.

"A man needs some of that fire in him. Perhaps he's finally grown a little."

Yeon Wi chuckled.

"Grown? I imagine the strategist would be rather offended to hear that."

"Offended? I'm complimenting him."

"He's always been that sort of man. He's simply kept that part of himself restrained until now."

"You think so?"

"I didn't realize it myself. It was only when I saw him at the meeting that I understood. There's as much passion burning inside that man as there is in anyone."

"Whatever the case, I don't think it's a bad quality to have."

"Neither do I."

Tang Gwan took a sip of tea, then asked with a slightly mischievous expression, "By the way, it must have been exhausting for you."

"Hmm?"

"Being a spy, of course."

Yeon Wi burst out laughing before he could help himself.

"No one foolish enough to use someone like me as a spy would last very long."

That much was certainly true.

Yeon Wi was far too straightforward to make a good infiltrator.

In the ruthless martial world, such honesty was an enormous weakness. Yet Yeon Wi had turned his sincerity and convictions into weapons, earning himself a reputation that rivaled anyone's.

Tang Gwan smacked his lips thoughtfully.

"I am curious, though. It must take an extraordinary amount of effort to hide such a black heart behind a smiling face."

"Whoever it is, it's a frightening thought."

Yeon Wi idly turned his teacup between his fingers.

"Doing absolutely anything to win... There are plenty of organizations in the world willing to go that far. But I never imagined they'd plant an infiltrator among the Martial Alliance's own councillors."

"They say a crisis is also an opportunity, don't they? We can't afford to grow complacent, but there's no need to walk around with our shoulders permanently tensed, either."

Yeon Wi smiled.

"You sound as though you have considerable experience with this sort of thing."

He hadn't genuinely expected that to be the case.

To his surprise, however, Tang Gwan nodded.

"Quite a bit."

Frank astonishment crossed Yeon Wi's face.

"Are you saying there have been spies operating inside the Tang Clan?"

"That's right."

"Good heavens."

There was hardly anyone under heaven who hadn't heard of the Tang Clan of Sichuan and its fearsome reputation.

And someone had dared to send spies into such a place?

What sort of organization had that much nerve?

Tang Gwan shook his head.

"We built our walls out of fear, which only made people more determined to get inside. There were plenty of fools who couldn't resist wondering what lay behind the walls of a fortress no one had ever managed to breach."

"To send spies despite the danger..."

"Curiosity can drive people mad."

"I would have thought fear would outweigh curiosity."

"It always starts the same way. They send their spies with absolute confidence, then immediately begin worrying whether their agents will manage to get inside. They watch and wait, hoping for the best. When the attempt fails, they convince themselves it must have been some extraordinary stroke of bad luck and train another spy."

The corners of Tang Gwan's mouth rose.

"To those people, every spy they send is nothing more than a tail. They never imagine that losing one could put the rest of them in danger."

"..."

"I burned more than twenty such organizations to the ground during my time as Clan Lord alone."

Surprise flashed across Yeon Wi's face again.

"Th-that many?"

"And here's something even more surprising. Fewer than half of them were martial sects."

"...?!"

Tang Gwan crossed his legs and turned toward the window.

His expression was that of a man who had lived through so many incidents of this kind that experience had long since given way to exhaustion.

"When people think about sending a spy into a martial sect, they generally imagine someone with decent martial arts and excellent stealth skills. But they're wrong. The truly terrifying spies aren't the ones with exceptional physical abilities. They're the ones with exceptional mental strength."

"Mental strength..."

"Someone who can destroy relationships with nothing more than a few carefully chosen words. Someone who has never learned martial arts but can read people and sense the mood within an organization better than anyone else. Someone who can smile without breaking a sweat, even when the walls are closing in around them."

"...!"

"Those are the spies you should truly fear. And by that same reasoning, if one of the councillors is indeed an infiltrator, that person must be extraordinary."

"Even though they've cultivated martial arts?"

"That depends on what kind of martial arts they've cultivated."

Tang Gwan's gaze deepened as he looked out the window.

Outside, on the training ground, Tang Sang-a was practicing the Peerless Death Dagger Stance.

Tang Gwan's eyes softened, just a little.

"If the spy is one of the Clan Lords of the Six Great Clans, then we're dealing with someone whose sense of purpose is so ruthless that they could sever even the bonds of blood and family without hesitation."

"Why do you say that? Couldn't the entire clan have joined forces with the Three Creeds?"

"Impossible. An infiltrator who has risen to the position of Clan Lord would be even less likely to involve his own people. The fewer people who know a secret, the better. At least, that's how a genuine spy would think."

It was a chilling observation.

What Tang Gwan was suggesting was that, should the spy's schemes eventually succeed, the person in question would be cold-blooded enough to slaughter every member of their own family who refused to follow them.

"For similar reasons, if the spy belongs to one of the Nine Great Sects, that's just as extraordinary. The martial arts of the Nine Great Sects are rooted in Buddhist and Daoist cultivation. Of course, plenty of people have lost their way despite practicing those arts. But someone who has cultivated them to the level expected of a sect leader would have attained such profound enlightenment that the very act of deceiving others might be repugnant to them. Otherwise, cultivating their True Qi to such a level would be extraordinarily difficult."

"Then...?!"

"If the infiltrator is one of the sect leaders, that person possesses a will so ruthless it borders on a second personality—one that cannot be broken even by Buddhist or Daoist cultivation methods. And they must have the genius to reach the Transcendent Peak while concealing that ruthlessness deep within their heart."

Tang Gwan finally drew his gaze away from Tang Sang-a's training and looked down at his teacup.

"Either way, one thing is certain. That bastard's mental strength is harder than steel."

Yeon Wi's expression had grown exceedingly stiff.

He had caught a spy himself once.

That spy had been none other than Taegyeong, the chief administrator of the Yeon Clan. Without Yeon Hojeong's ingenuity, catching him would have been extremely difficult.

But after listening to Tang Gwan, Yeon Wi was beginning to think that someone like Taegyeong had been relatively tame.

Tang Gwan chuckled.

"That's why I don't believe Mo Yonggun is the spy."

"Why not?"

"Because his desires are far too excessive, and I don't believe he has the mental strength required. You've seen it yourself, haven't you? How many times did that bastard get caught off guard by the little punk's surprise attacks?"

The "little punk," of course, was Yeon Hojeong.

"Every one of those moments of surprise was genuine. You can't fake reactions like that."

"What if even those reactions were an act?"

"Then I suppose we'd be fools who walked straight into his trap."

Yeon Wi nodded.

It can't be Mo Yonggun.

He knew as much from what his son had told him.

Back when Yeon Hojeong had been known as the Dark Emperor, Mo Yonggun had been one of the greatest masters of the Orthodox Path. He had joined forces with Yeon Hojeong to fight the Perverse Lust Cult.

There was no reason a man like that would now be working as an infiltrator for those same enemies.

Besides, Mo Yonggun was far too proud.

But... something doesn't add up.

Yeon Wi's eyes gleamed.

Hojeong clearly told me that, at the very end, Mo Yonggun used Clan Lord Tang's hand to kill him.

And that had only been one of the Three Creeds—the Perverse Lust Cult.

In other words, the Central Plains had still been in grave danger.

Yet Mo Yonggun had chosen to kill one of the few absolute masters capable of standing against that threat?

For all his greed and jealousy, Mo Yonggun was a man who knew how to look after those he considered his own.

He had no compelling reason to kill the King of the Dark Path.

Why? Why did Mo Yonggun kill Hojeong back then?

The question remained unanswered.

And as Yeon Wi considered it, his gaze grew deeper and more solemn than ever.

There's something more to this.