Chapter 526

After leaving Sichuan.

Events moved quickly.

First, Kang Cheonwoo acted personally.

He destroyed three sects under the Murim Alliance: the Clear Wind Sword Sect, the Great Harmony Sect, and Bright Moon Hall.

All three had been systematically spreading malicious rumors about the Sichuan Alliance.

They had taken the false accusation of collusion with the Demonic Path and inflated it, fabricated testimony claiming that martial artists of the Sichuan Alliance had harmed civilians, and taken the lead in turning public opinion throughout the Central Plains toward the Murim Alliance.

Kang Cheonwoo went to them himself, sword in hand.

One each day.

In three days, all three were gone.

The Central Plains erupted into commotion.

The Sichuan Overlord had risen.

It was a declaration that he would endure no more.

At the same time, the Beggars’ Sect moved.

The Beggars’ Sect denounced the Sichuan Alliance’s actions and maliciously painted Kang Cheonwoo’s behavior as that of the Demonic Path.

Heaven’s Will Alliance moved.

Heaven’s Will Alliance publicly released the Seven Stars Sect’s transaction ledgers throughout the martial world—the very ledgers the Murim Alliance and Beggars’ Sect had presented as evidence of collusion with the Demonic Path.

Along with them came the facts that the transactions had been small in scale from the beginning, that they had been private dealings unrelated to the Sichuan Alliance, and even Viper Valley’s examination concluding that the leader of the Seven Stars Sect had not died of illness, but had been poisoned.

And that was not the end.

It was also publicly revealed that the Hwanmyeong Sect affair had been the unilateral action of former Vice Leader Mo Yong Namcheon; that Kang Cheonwoo had discovered it and expelled him; and that, after being expelled, Mo Yong Namcheon had sought out Unhwi, the man responsible for ruining his plans, and died there.

The accusations reversed with almost unnatural ease.

A new picture formed.

The Sichuan Alliance had not colluded with the Demonic Path.

The Murim Alliance had framed the Sichuan Alliance.

Once the circumstances suggesting that they had even murdered a witness were added, public opinion against the Murim Alliance shifted rapidly.

The small and medium sects that had stood with the Murim Alliance until yesterday began closing their mouths one by one.

But the atmosphere was strange.

Things had not improved.

If anything, the tension grew tighter.

The reason was simple.

It had become clear that Kang Cheonwoo would not back down.

Reversing the false accusations favored the Sichuan Alliance, but Kang Cheonwoo destroying three sects under the Murim Alliance was a separate matter.

He had cleared his name.

But blood had been spilled.

From the Murim Alliance’s perspective, three subordinate sects had been annihilated.

They could not simply remain still.

The justification had changed hands.

Until moments ago, the situation had been the Murim Alliance pressuring the Sichuan Alliance.

Now it had become the Sichuan Alliance attacking the Murim Alliance.

All-out war was just ahead.

The entire Central Plains lay under tension.

Unhwi was on his way back to the Blood Heaven Sect.

Together with Ju Soa.

Westward from Sichuan.

Walking along a mountain path.

They did not use lightness arts.

They walked slowly.

There was much to think about.

Kang Cheonwoo moved more violently than I expected.

Faster than expected, and more extreme.

I did not think he would go as far as annihilating entire sects.

And today was the fifth day.

One sect each day.

Kang Cheonwoo was rampaging now.

He had even smashed branches of the Beggars’ Sect.

Five of them.

The solution Unhwi had proposed was to reverse the justification.

Not annihilate sects.

But that was Kang Cheonwoo.

The Sichuan Overlord.

Once he started moving, he was a man who did not stop until he was satisfied.

It had been good to strike him with the truth and make him raise his fist.

But even Kang Cheonwoo himself might not know how far that fist would reach.

No.

Perhaps.

Kang Cheonwoo may know exactly where his fist will stop.

That was when it happened.

There was a presence ahead.

Unhwi stopped.

Ju Soa stopped as well.

“My lord.”

“I felt it.”

Unhwi looked ahead.

On the mountain path.

Two men stood beneath a tree.

Black robes.

Hoods over their heads.

Half their faces were hidden.

But they did not conceal their power.

They displayed it openly, as though there were no need to hide it.

Unity of Heaven and Man.

Both of them.

Unhwi’s gaze fell to their clothing.

There was an emblem on the robes.

Small, but visible.

An emblem embroidered over the left side of the chest.

An eye.

The mark of the Primordial Pavilion.

Unhwi’s eyes narrowed.

One of the two men stepped forward.

He gave a clasped-hands salute.

“We came to deliver a message to the Blood Heaven Arbiter.”

His voice was polite.

But there was weight beneath the politeness.

“Primordial Pavilion.”

“That is correct.”

“Did your Pavilion Master send you?”

“Yes.”

Unhwi stopped before the two men.

“Speak.”

“He asked us to convey one thing.”

The man spoke.

“Withdraw from this matter.”

Unhwi looked at him.

Then gave a faint grin.

“This matter?”

“He means that you are to remove yourself from the affairs between the Sichuan Alliance and Murim Alliance.”

“Why should I?”

Unhwi asked.

Calmly.

The man hesitated for a moment.

He exchanged a glance with the man behind him.

The second man gave a faint nod.

The first spoke.

“The Blood Heaven Arbiter should know what Peach Blossom Garden is.”

Unhwi’s eyes shifted slightly.

Peach Blossom Garden.

These men mentioned Peach Blossom Garden.

“Blood Stones are made from the corpses of dead martial artists.”

The man continued.

“If the Murim Alliance and Sichuan Alliance go to war, martial artists will die. A great many of them. On both sides.”

“......”

“The more dead martial artists there are, the more Blood Stones there will be.”

“......”

“For the great cause, that is not a bad thing.”

Unhwi looked at the man.

For a long time.

Then shook his head.

“Is that what you were taught?”

“......What?”

“The Heavenly Lord does not favor deliberately starting wars.”

Unhwi spoke.

“It seems the Primordial Pavilion is deeply involved in this matter.”

There was no speculation in Unhwi’s voice.

It was certainty.

At those words, the man’s body flinched.

Unhwi had struck the mark.

But the man soon regained his composure.

“No.”

The man answered.

His voice was firm.

So firm that it became suspicious in itself.

“The Primordial Pavilion is an organization that follows the great cause. We merely......”

He continued.

“Guided the desire of one man.”

Unhwi looked at him.

The desire of one man.

Gun Mugeol.

They guided his ambition.

His ambition to unite the martial world.

His plan to bring down the Sichuan Alliance.

It meant the Primordial Pavilion had encouraged him from behind, provided him information, and helped him construct the board.

Depending on how one looked at it, perhaps it did not seem like direct action.

Perhaps it could even appear that they had not violated the Heavenly Wayfarer’s principles.

As they themselves said, they had merely stirred the ambition of a single man named Gun Mugeol.

And if the result began to flow toward the greater course of a war throughout the martial world, they were also confident that they could stop it whenever they wished.

Unhwi could see it clearly.

They needed to create Blood Stones for the great cause.

Gun Mugeol had even come to Peach Blossom Garden and knew of Heaven Beyond Heaven.

Everything fit together.

That was why the Primordial Pavilion felt not the slightest shame.

They were utterly confident.

The corner of Unhwi’s mouth rose.

It rose until it trembled.

He almost burst out laughing.

He held it back.

But his shoulders shook faintly.

Ju Soa looked at him in confusion.

The two men looked equally puzzled.

“Guided the desire of one man.”

Unhwi repeated the words.

“Yes. I suppose that is what you think.”

“......What do you mean?”

“Nothing. Forget it.”

Unhwi waved a hand.

It was almost absurd.

The Primordial Pavilion guided Gun Mugeol’s desire?

They think they are using Gun Mugeol.

The Gun Mugeol Unhwi knew was not that kind of man.

Gun Mugeol was not someone who danced in another person’s palm.

He was someone who pretended to be used while using the other side instead.

A tiger wearing a fox’s mask.

They saw the mask and thought he was a fox.

But beneath the mask was a tiger.

The Primordial Pavilion guided Gun Mugeol’s desire?

No.

Gun Mugeol is using the Primordial Pavilion’s intelligence network.

The Primordial Pavilion believed they were using Gun Mugeol as a tool.

In reality, it was exactly the opposite.

Gun Mugeol was using the Primordial Pavilion as a tool.

The Primordial Pavilion has spent centuries reading the flow of the world, yet it is dancing in the palm of one man.

There was more.

Gun Mugeol might also have been involved in the Heaven-Law Platform affair.

Judging by how things were unfolding, he had accounted for the possibility that Unhwi might become involved in this matter, but had considered the probability low.

That was why events had progressed this way.

Gun Mugeol was—

Just as the Heavenly Wayfarer said, a man who builds boards.

Truly.

Unhwi almost felt sorry for the Primordial Sage.

The man was different in nature from the Heaven-Law Immortal.

But in the end, he was making the same mistake.

Underestimating his opponent.

The Heaven-Law Immortal had underestimated Unhwi.

The Primordial Sage was underestimating Gun Mugeol.

Both were the same kind of arrogance.

Unhwi looked at the man.

“Return and tell your Pavilion Master.”

“How should we convey—”

“I have no intention of withdrawing from this matter.”

“......For someone who holds the position of Blood Heaven Arbiter within the Blood Heaven Sect to move like this means that it becomes an action of the Blood Heaven Sect itself......”

“An action of the Blood Heaven Sect?”

“......”

“Do not dare speak of the Blood Heaven Sect’s actions with that mouth.”

“......My apologies.”

“And one more thing.”

Unhwi spoke.

“Do not underestimate the man named Gun Mugeol.”

The man’s eyes filled with confusion.

“You said you guided one man’s desire for the sake of the great cause.”

“......Yes.”

“You did not guide him.”

The man’s expression stiffened.

“He led you.”

“What do you......”

“Your Pavilion Master will judge for himself. Just deliver the message.”

Unhwi walked past the two men.

Ju Soa followed.

The two men stared at Unhwi’s back.

For a long while.

Then looked at each other.

“......What did he mean when he said we were led?”

“I do not know.”

“We should report this to the Pavilion Master.”

“We should.”

The two turned.

Then disappeared.

Only Unhwi and Ju Soa remained on the mountain path.

Ju Soa asked.

“My lord.”

“Mm.”

“What did you mean when you said they were being led?”

“Exactly what I said.”

Unhwi answered as he walked.

“The Primordial Pavilion thinks it is using Gun Mugeol. They intend to stir his ambition, cause a war, and create Blood Stones from the corpses of the martial artists who die in that war.”

“......”

“But do you think Gun Mugeol does not know that?”

Ju [N O V E L I G H T] Soa thought for a moment.

“......I do not know that man in detail, but I do think he is meticulous. He probably does know.”

“Yes. Gun Mugeol knows what the Primordial Pavilion is doing behind him.”

“Then why does he allow it?”

“Because he is using them.”

Unhwi spoke.

“He needs the Primordial Pavilion’s intelligence. The Primordial Pavilion came to him on its own, gives him information, and helps him construct his boards. From Gun Mugeol’s perspective, there is no reason to refuse.”

“......”

“While the Primordial Pavilion thinks it is using Gun Mugeol for its own purposes, Gun Mugeol is effectively using the Primordial Pavilion for free. And at the end of it, he will discard them the moment they are no longer useful.”

Ju Soa looked at Unhwi.

“......Discard them?”

“He is a man who has lived as though the world rested in his palm. Now that he knows of Heaven Beyond Heaven—including the Primordial Pavilion and the Heaven-Law Platform—what do you think he will do?”

“......Normally, would he not join hands with them?”

Unhwi nodded.

“Normally, yes.”

“......”

“But not Gun Mugeol. He is the kind of man who moves to eliminate unexpected variables as completely as possible. The Heaven-Law Platform is gone. The Primordial Pavilion will be next.”

“......This is complicated.”

“The world is complicated.”

Unhwi gave a faint grin.

“But some things are simple.”

“What?”

“The arrogant always fall.”

Unhwi looked ahead.

“The Heaven-Law Immortal did.”

“......”

“The Primordial Sage will too.”

“......”

“And.”

Unhwi’s eyes deepened.

“One day, Gun Mugeol will fall as well.”

The wind blew.

Leaves scattered across the mountain path.

Unhwi began walking again.

Ju Soa followed.

Toward the Blood Heaven Sect.