Chapter 395 : Propaganda (3)

Although Il-mok looked fine on the surface, he had actually swallowed the blood that had just risen to his throat in order to look convincing to the Left Commissioner. The internal injuries this time are quite significant to the point where his opportunists of side effects dare to rear their ugly heads.

'Shut up!!'

While Il-mok was busy mentally wrestling with the chaotic voices in his head, Cheon Ryang suddenly threw his hands into a polite salute and bowed deeply.

"It was not my intention to test the Young Master. It's just that the lives of this old man and my entire family were on the line, so I was understandably anxious. But now that I'm completely convinced, I promise nothing like this will ever happen again."

Faced with such an overwhelming display of raw firepower, Cheon Ryang's manners had improved at record speed.

'Although I’ve never seen the martial prowess of that Supreme Eunuch, there’s no way he could pull off a miracle like that. And this Young Master isn't even the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult! Just how strong is the man leading the cult...?'

Even while shaking in his boots, Cheon Ryang's brain was already crunching the numbers.

Of course, since he hadn't actually met the Supreme Eunuch or the Cult Leader in person, this was all just guesswork on his part.

When the Left Commissioner made known his intent to join them, Il-mok nodded and issued his first instruction.

"In that case, I need you to do something for me."

"Just give the word, and I'll gladly see it done."

"Find out who the most capable officials are, specifically the ones who are sick and tired of the current Imperial system. I also want you to write down the names of the blind imperial loyalists and the corrupt scumbags who've been making the commoners suffer."

Il-mok was basically asking for a recruitment list and a hit list all at once.

"I'll have it ready for you before the night is over."

"Good, then I'll drop by again right before dawn."

After giving Cheon Ryang his homework, Il-mok turned his head to look at Jin Hayeon.

"Make sure the Left Commissioner gets back home in one piece."

"I shall obey your command."

Jin Hayeon gave a martial salute and once again carried the Left Commissioner on her back to head for Lanzhou.

"Haa."

The second the Left Commissioner was out of sight, Il-mok let out a sigh of relief and a thin stream of blood dripped from the corner of his lips.

"Young Master!?"

The maids flinched in panic, but Il-mok just waved them off casually.

"It's not life-threatening, so don't freak out. I just need to sit down and circulate my energy for a bit, so stand guard and make sure nothing interrupts me."

Before the maids could even answer, Il-mok dropped into a lotus position and furiously started circulating his internal energy.

As he dived into his own mindscape, Il-mok came face-to-face with two glowing clones of himself.

One was bright red, and the other was blue.

'Start praying, you annoying little shits.'

—Come now, I told you before, we are literally you.

—That’s right. Just embrace your true desires and... Wait! Put me down! Let's talk about this! Vi-violence is never the answer!

—Th-that fellow is speaking correctly for once. V-violence is—

'Why? Didn't you say to me not to hold back my desire and rage? The same date of today of the next year is the anniversary of your deaths.'

Once he caged them up in a massive vortex of gray energy, Il-mok ruthlessly started beating the living daylights out of them.

***

Several hours later, just moments before dawn.

With his internal injuries healed and his frustration vented, Il-mok waltzed into the Left Commissioner’s estate in a good mood.

"Here it is, Young Master."

Ever since Cheon Ryang witnessed the might of the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm, his attitude had grown considerably more respectful. He handed the documents to Il-mok with both hands.

While Il-mok flipped the list open and casually skimmed it, Cheon Ryang carefully voiced a request.

"Young Master, can you grant this old man a grace period of just a few days?"

When Il-mok lifted his gaze from the roster and looked at Cheon Ryang with a puzzled expression, the latter quickly explained himself.

"If we start slaughtering the officials on this kill list right away, even the good guys we want to recruit might panic and fight back, thinking we're just violent tyrants. Those people are the types that become outcasts because of their stubborn morals. Since they didn’t even bow in the face of the Imperial Family’s authority, how could they obediently surrender themselves to the people they perceived as enemies?”

"You are essentially asking me to let you contact those you wish to recruit first, and only execute those who become obstacles afterward."

"Precisely."

Il-mok organized his thoughts for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"It's a solid plan, but I've got one condition. If you screw up a recruitment pitch, there's a huge risk that these people will run off and leak our rebellion to the authorities. So, from now on, one of my people is going to follow you during every single meeting."

"Thank you for your understanding."

With the deal struck, Il-mok grabbed the list and left the building.

Time flew by until it was roughly noon.

The Left Commissioner worked in his office and summoned one of the officials.

As he watched the middle-aged man who wore an air of sullenness about him, the Left Commissioner opened his mouth with a gentle smile.

"You've still got that same miserable scowl on your face, Lord Kang."

"For what reason have you summoned me, sir Left Commissioner?"

"Oh, I just thought we could sit down and have an honest, heart-to-heart chat."

The middle-aged man called Lord Kang let out a scoff. "An honest chat? Really?"

But far from showing any displeasure, Cheon Ryang just kept smiling gently.

"I really don't understand why you're always so angry at the world, Lord Kang. Is it because you passed the exams so young, but you're still stuck at the bottom of the ladder as a Junior Rank 6 official?"

The middle-aged man answered with his teeth clenched at the probing. "It has nothing to do with rank."

"Then what is it that makes you so discontented?"

"I trust that you aren't the kind of man to go back on his promises, sir Left Commissioner. Since you told me to be honest, I'm going to tell you exactly how it is."

When Cheon Ryang nodded as if to say he could speak as freely as he wished, the middle-aged man opened his mouth.

"No matter how many times I propose reforms or write reports on what we need to do to save the people and strengthen this country, nothing changes. That's why I'm furious.”

Just like the old saying. Once you ride the tiger, it is difficult to get off.

Once he opened his mouth, the dam on the middle-aged man's heart broke, and he couldn’t stop venting his frustration.

"How am I supposed to walk around smiling when the bastards squeezing the commoners dry and taking dirty bribes are the ones getting promoted. They’ve done nothing but stuff their own pockets!!!"

Once the man was completely out of breath from his rant, Cheon Ryang just smiled and softly spoke.

"Hahaha. Tell me, if you were actually given the chance to rewrite how this world works, do you think that anger of yours would finally cool down?"

Caught totally off guard by Cheon Ryang's bizarre question, the middle-aged man racked his brain for a second before firing back.

"Are you saying you're actually going to promote me to Inspector?"

The inspector was a Senior Rank 5 post; it was basically a high-level auditor with the power to actually root out corruption.

But his guess couldn't have been more wrong.

The Left Commissioner shook his head once again, and he casually dropped a bombshell of a story that Lord Kang could never have seen coming.

"By any chance, have you heard the rumors circulating recently in the vicinity of Lanzhou? The rumors about those rabble who call themselves men of the martial world."

Though the two preceding statements seemed totally unrelated, the middle-aged man suddenly connected the dots when they were put together.

He arrived at a terrifying conclusion that he never would have dared to imagine.

"Sir Left Commissioner, please tell me that you are not actually planning to join forces with those thugs from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult."

The middle-aged man stared at the Left Commissioner like he had completely lost his mind.

Rather than answering the man's question, Cheon Ryang asked in return.

"Isn't this the perfect opportunity for you? With that temper of yours, you could die and be reborn and still never rise to a high post. That means that changing the world as you dream of it shall also be forever impossible. But what if you held hands with the Demonic Cult and actually succeeded in overthrowing the empire?"

For some reason, the Left Commissioner's treasonous pitch sounded as sweet as honey.

But the man quickly snapped back to reality and eyed the Left Commissioner with heavy suspicion.

"Haven't you always hated my guts, sir Left Commissioner?"

For some reason, the thought crossed his mind that the moment he accepted this proposal, he might be framed for treason and put to death.

Seeing the man's obvious suspicion, the Left Commissioner let out a soft chuckle.

"Didn't you hate my guts just as much? You've always looked at me like I was just a greedy old man obsessed with getting promoted."

"Well, that's..."

Faced with the Left Commissioner's blunt honesty, the man couldn't easily muster a defense.

Watching him struggle for words, the Left Commissioner just smiled and kept talking.

"You were completely right. I am just a greedy old man obsessed with climbing the ladder. But you know what? If you actually want to change the world, you need power. Political power. Financial power. Martial power. Whatever the form may be, it is undeniable that you need power. And to form power, you need to dive deep into the dirty cesspit that is the world and drown in its filth. You know this, but all you do is complain that the water's dirty while trying to keep your own clothes spotless; that is exactly why I couldn't stand you."

The blatant rebuke delivered with a smiling face left the man momentarily at a loss for words.

After racking his brain, he barely managed to squeeze out one question.

"If you can't stand me, why are you offering me this?"

"Because they specifically asked for someone like you."

"!!!"

"They want someone honest. Someone who, even in a filthy world, considers the welfare of the common people before his own pockets. They were looking for such a person."

"..."

"I've said my piece, so now it's time for you to decide. What's it going to be?"

The man sank into silence.

'They want someone like me?'

They say a real man will lay down his life for a lord who recognizes his true worth, and right now, his heart was beating out of his chest.

Only one hurdle was holding him back.

'Is treason really the right call?'

But his hesitation didn't last long.

'Every word spoken by the Left Commissioner is true. I've just been acting all high and mighty because I was too scared to get my own hands dirty.'

If he backed down now just because he was afraid of being called a traitor, nothing in this country would ever change.

For the filthy heaven as it stood would not even lend an ear to his earnest counsel.

"I accept your offer, Left Commissioner."

He didn't even bother asking what the odds of their rebellion succeeding were.

He simply chose what he himself deemed right. He was a man who regarded his own life as unimportant.

When the middle-aged man offered his respects and answered thus, Cheon Ryang nodded with a satisfied smile.

"You made the right choice."

Throughout the rest of the day, Cheon Ryang called in a few more officials to bring them over to their side.

But he didn't just blindly summon every single name he had scribbled on his list.

Like the old saying goes, 'birds of a feather flock together,' meaning the rebels and the honest politicians usually hung out in the same circles.

Because of that, he only needed to recruit the ringleaders of those specific groups to get the rest to follow.

After spending the day recruiting a few key officials, the Left Commissioner left his office in the late afternoon.

He had already sent a servant ahead of time to set up a very special meeting.

"For what reason have you summoned me to this place? Lord Cheon."

The stern-looking old man who asked the Left Commissioner this question was the Provincial Military Commander, the man holding military power over Gansu Province.

"Hahaha. There is a pressing matter I wish to discuss in a quiet place, and so I have sent for you."

Cheon Ryang offered the proper respect to the Provincial Military Commander before leading him out of Lanzhou to a remote place.

The Provincial Military Commander harbored many questions throughout the ride and the moment he stepped out of the carriage to follow Cheon Ryeon, he sensed that something was amiss.

The place where the carriage had arrived was a desolate wasteland.

'This looks like someone set off dozens of Thunder Bombs all at once.'

Just then, the Left Commissioner's voice broke the silence.

"Thank you for accompanying me all the way out here."

"Hahaha. Well, I'm assuming you dragged me out here for a good reason. So, what's so top-secret that we had to come out to a place like this?"

Instead of giving a straight answer, Cheon Ryang just quietly shifted his eyes to the men standing right next to the Commander.

They were his personal detail of elite bodyguards.

Catching onto the silent implication immediately, the Provincial Military Commander reassured the Left Commissioner.

"Don't worry about them, they're my most trusted men who follow my orders to the letter."

After clearing his own guards, the Provincial Military Commander turned his gaze to the solitary woman standing quietly beside Cheon Ryang.

She was an incredibly beautiful but cold-looking woman who hadn't said a single word the entire trip.

Strangely, the Left Commissioner had brought her along without a single actual bodyguard to protect him.

"This woman's will completely align with my own, so there is no need for you to worry about her either."

The Provincial Military Commander thought that was an incredibly bizarre way to phrase it.

If she were just a maid or a servant, she'd just follow orders. What did he mean their wills aligned?

'Does that mean she's a favorite concubine of his? We're obviously out here to discuss something major, but he brought a concubine? Don't tell me he dragged me out here just to ask me to give her brother a cushy job in the Provincial Military Commission.'

The Provincial Military Commander couldn't even begin to imagine how horribly wrong he was.

He had zero clue that the power of life and death over every single man standing there was resting in the hands of the woman he just mistook for a concubine.

(TL Note: Oh boy, he’s going to have a heart attack next chap.)