―'The Iron Cavalry Alliance has crossed Jade Gate Pass and attacked the Martial Alliance's Gyeryu branch.'
―'The Red Cloud Sect and the Dark Resonance Esoteric Sect of the Western Regions have plundered the merchant guilds of the Central Plains and wiped out the Swift Sword Sect.'
―'The Black Forest Cult has pushed as far as the Sichuan border and is turning the whole region into a living hell.'
Reports that shook the martial world poured in one after another.
―'The Four Great Demonic Lands are also making their move.'
The demonic den among demonic dens, acknowledged as such by the whole of the Central Plains martial world.
A congregation of evil bound together by nothing but pure madness was opening its campaign in step with the invasion from beyond the border?
The stirrings of the forces from beyond the border were one thing, but a war among the sects within the Central Plains could prove far more fatal.
It could only be grim news.
―'They have to be stopped!'
The invasion by the forces from beyond the border was no passing raid, nor a bid to widen their territory.
Left alone, it could swallow the entire Central Plains martial world.
The Buddha Venerable, who had become Lord of the Phoenix and proclaimed his preparations for war against Majeon, addressed the martial artists of the righteous path.
―'Let the heads of the righteous path gather at the Martial Alliance! Let us drive back those foreign enemies who would trample our land!'
Geography alone meant that whenever the forces from beyond the border rose up, it was always the Martial Alliance that stood first against them.
They had always threatened the territory of the righteous path before any other.
In Henan and Hebei, where Shaolin and Wudang stood, the wolves of the north were forever watching for their chance.
The Emei Sect and the Beggar Sect were constantly clashing with heretical cults like the Dark Resonance Esoteric Sect.
On top of that, every force that had entered the Central Plains this time belonged to the Demonic Outer Path, making this a fundamental clash between righteousness and evil.
―'There is no help for it.'
And so, the Nine Great Sects, the Eight Great Families, and even the Azure Sky Alliance—which had once contested the Martial Alliance for supremacy—all made for the Martial Alliance to hold back the forces from beyond the border.
―'To settle this matter, I shall found the Orthodox Path Alliance, a union of the righteous!'
It was as much as Bu Eunseol had once formed the Grand Alliance to wipe out the Jungson Family.
Against the uprising from beyond the border, the Orthodox Path Alliance was founded.
―'This is a temporary union, so there is no need for hesitation!'
At the Buddha Venerable's declaration, the figures of the righteous path looked on in awe and admiration.
―'Of course!'
The Buddha Venerable was not simply holding back the forces from beyond the border.
He meant to use this chance to re-establish a central pillar for the scattered righteous path, and to gather the fractured Martial Alliance and the righteous path back together.
―'Any sect that does not enter the Orthodox Path Alliance cannot call itself a sect of the orthodox path!'
That sentiment swept through the righteous martial world, taking firm hold everywhere.
In the end, the heads of every sect and every family began streaming into the Martial Alliance's main headquarters.
Majeon, the Suppressed Demon Pavilion.
Clatter, bang.
A shadow came running down the passage that led to Bu Eunseol's office.
It was Wi Cheongyeong.
"The Buddha Venerable, that madman, has finally gone and done it!"
Wi Cheongyeong had picked up the news spreading through the martial world the instant it broke.
He flung the office door wide, forgetting even to salute Bu Eunseol.
"Since he cannot strike this Hall directly, he has moved the forces from beyond the border to..."
Wi Cheongyeong, shouting urgently, could not finish.
Hundreds of letters lay strewn across the office floor, and Bu Eunseol and Yoo Unryong were crouched down among them.
Wi Cheongyeong looked down at the letters scattered across the floor.
They included not only intelligence delivered by the Death Spirit Corps, but also reports from the senior figures of the Martial Soul Society and from Gongsun Dankyung, Chief Steward of the Azure Sky Alliance.
Others had come from Han Sangja, who was currently staying at his estate by West Lake.
"So it came to this after all," Yoo Unryong said, looking at Bu Eunseol with hollow, exhausted eyes.
"It looks like you will have to go to the Martial Soul Society now."
"Yes. I suppose I will."
This went back to the Corps Leader council.
Since then, Bu Eunseol and Yoo Unryong had been in ceaseless contact with the senior figures of the Martial Soul Society, with Gongsun Dankyung, and with Han Sangja, predicting the schemes the Martial Alliance would set in motion.
"So you already knew."
Wi Cheongyeong looked embarrassed.
Under normal circumstances, intelligence passed from the Death Spirit Corps to the Suppressed Demon Pavilion reached Wi Cheongyeong first.
This time, however, he had been away with the men of the Soul-Pursuit Corps.
He had been given the task of inspecting and integrating the intelligence systems of the Heaven and Earth Severing Sect, Nangyang Pavilion, and the Affectionate Blossom Sect.
Having returned to Majeon late, he was completely unaware of the situation.
"You have done well."
Bu Eunseol rose from his seat and clapped Wi Cheongyeong on the shoulder.
"The Great Corps Leader has not slept in ten days. From now on, work with Myo Cheonwoo and help him clear his backlog."
Yoo Unryong was steeped in exhaustion, his very eyelids swollen and puffy.
Bu Eunseol, by contrast, had clear eyes and a clean appearance, as though he had just come from washing.
"Understood."
When Wi Cheongyeong saluted, Yoo Unryong spoke.
"Be careful."
"There is nothing to be careful of."
As Bu Eunseol swept out, Wi Cheongyeong's gaze fell suddenly on the letters lying on the floor.
What was written inside was the last thing he expected.
'So that was it.'
Wi Cheongyeong's eyes went wide.
Only after reading the letters scattered there did he grasp the Martial Alliance's true objective.
Henan, the Martial Alliance.
The Orthodox Path Alliance had been formed, and the heads of countless righteous sects came and went before the Heavenly Justice Gate.
There, a host of banners streamed in the wind, and a force appeared that gave off an air of stern discipline.
It was led by Seolso, Society Leader of the Martial Soul Society, the one and only union of orthodox and unorthodox in the Central Plains, alongside the Four Great Corps under his command.
―'This Society too will enter the Orthodox Path Alliance and help subjugate the forces from beyond the border.'
Society Leader Seolso had come to the Martial Alliance without warning or invitation and delivered a visiting card carrying that intent.
The senior figures of the Martial Alliance could not hide their discomfort.
The Orthodox Path Alliance was, quite literally, an alliance of the orthodox path.
If the Martial Soul Society, which stood between orthodox and unorthodox, took part, the alliance's name would be tarnished.
―'This Orthodox Path Alliance has been formed as a union of the orthodox path. A sect that stands between orthodox and unorthodox cannot take part.'
They conveyed their refusal flatly, but Seolso held his ground at the Heavenly Justice Gate and sent in another visiting card.
―'What does defending the land from a foreign enemy have to do with weighing orthodox against unorthodox?'
It was true that the Society was no union of the righteous path.
But the Martial Soul Society had upheld chivalry all along, and it was firmly recognized as a union of the Central Plains.
And when such a body offered to join forces with the Martial Alliance and drive out the forces from beyond the border, there was nothing anyone could say against it.
―'A foreign enemy is bearing down on us, and every reinforcement, every fighting man, is desperately needed. And yet you cast aside help?'
―'You must feel quite confident about this fight.'
Having delivered those words, Seolso turned his forces around without a backward glance.
And then something remarkable happened.
―'They wish to join forces with this Alliance and drive out the forces from beyond the border pouring into our homeland. How could anyone forbid that?'
Baek Museong had not shown himself once until then.
Yet here he came out to the Heavenly Justice Gate in person to receive Society Leader Seolso, his face full of what looked like deep admiration.
―'For the Martial Soul Society, which has been bearing the brunt of the foreign forces, to reach such a bold resolution. You have made a truly difficult decision.'
He guided Seolso himself, walking ahead of him toward the council chamber of the Heaven and Earth Pavilion.
A smile filled Baek Museong's face as he walked ahead, but the corners of his eyes were trembling faintly.
Thick veins stood out at his temples.
In truth, rage flared within him to the point that his head was practically steaming.
It was because of Society Leader Seolso's abrupt move, utterly out of nowhere and entirely unforeseen.
The plan he had woven so meticulously was on the verge of collapse.
'This wretch.'
Inwardly, Baek Museong bit his lip.
He had watched it happen to great figures before, his own master the Buddha Venerable among them, and the Martial Venerable as well.
A single trivial variable, and grand designs prepared over long years went uncompleted and collapsed in the end.
'That must never be allowed to happen.'
Baek Museong too had spent long years preparing a grand design of his own.
It must never be allowed to collapse over some trivial variable.
* * *
The hidden chamber was sealed tight on every side.
The wick of a lamp on the wall burned thin and low, weaving the two shadows seated at the table together like a spiderweb.
At one side of the stone table, where the scent of ink from old books mingled with the cool smell of stone, Baek Museong sat with a hardened face.
Across from him sat the Buddha Venerable.
"The plan has changed."
Baek Museong drew a thin volume from inside his robes and set it on the table.
"Heh heh heh."
Having read the whole of it, the Buddha Venerable let out a strange laugh, like dry husks splitting open.
"It seems your time at the Martial Alliance has taught you how to use your head."
"I watched a fool ignore the plain signs of disaster and throw away ten years of his life right in front of me... How could it be otherwise?"
The fool he referred to was the Martial Venerable.
He had identified the disaster named Seon Woojin early on, yet his confidence that he could deal with the man whenever he pleased had ruined everything in the end.
And Baek Museong had witnessed that whole sequence.
He had resolved to wipe the plan he had labored over clean off the slate, and to begin by methodically removing every risk that could bring down the great enterprise.
"They say the smallest ember burns down a whole thatched house, but..."
The Buddha Venerable closed the volume and shook his head.
"You mean to end a thing you poured vast funds and manpower into, and labored over for so long a time, in a manner like this?"
Baek Museong's eyes flashed.
The Buddha Venerable.
Though he had been crouching in the darkness like a rat, he had been seeing straight through every plan Baek Museong had laid.
"The great holy monk who opposed everything I ever did would hardly throw up both hands to welcome me now, just because I have become Alliance Leader."
Baek Museong forced down his rising anger and spoke with a snort.
"Eliminating potential threats before they manifest must take precedence over all else."
"All that happened is that some fellow called Society Leader Seolso barged in and made you change your plan."
The Buddha Venerable wore a curious smile.
"This old monk is asking whether you will not come to regret it."
"Lord of the Phoenix."
Baek Museong spoke in a voice of utter cold.
"What this Alliance Leader expects of you is the authority and renown of the name Buddha Venerable, nothing more. I will answer for all of it... so trouble yourself with nothing else."
"Your ambition was always large. Your intellect, by contrast, was never your strong suit."
The Buddha Venerable shook his head and sighed.
"This old monk wanted nothing so much as to pry the lid off that useless head of yours and pour wisdom in. But nothing took."
It was an insult of the highest order.
Baek Museong picked up his teacup with a relaxed expression, as though well used to it.
"Hearing you spout such things so freely, you must be the real Buddha Venerable after all."
A faint sneer spread across his face where it was reflected in the tea.
"If a fake had spouted that, I would have peeled the skin from his face on the spot."
He knew that the Buddha Venerable raised any number of shadows and moved a great many affairs through them.
"Naturally."
The Buddha Venerable let Baek Museong's provocation pass with an untroubled expression.
"How could it be otherwise?"
Instead of answering, Baek Museong looked at the command tablet hanging at the Buddha Venerable's waist.
The tablet, steeped in a vivid red, bore the emblem of a phoenix carved into it with exquisite skill.
"You are Lord of the Phoenix now, so cook the Martial Alliance however you see fit. Only..."
Baek Museong looked the Buddha Venerable straight in the eye as he spoke.
"To kill Society Leader Seolso, you will deploy the Eighteen Souls of Light without fail."
For an instant, the Buddha Venerable's gaze wavered slightly. But he soon showed a leisurely smile.
"Heh heh heh. So you knew even that."
"I also know that they killed the Seven-Finger Demon Blade."
Baek Museong spoke with a weighted expression.
"The beginning and the end alike... it all comes back to the Martial Alliance, does it not?"
For an instant, the Buddha Venerable's pupils, catching the lamplight, glinted like a blade.
"Hmm."
"If that is not possible, then go out yourself. See to it that Society Leader Seolso dies without fail."
"No."
Unexpectedly, the Buddha Venerable shook his head.
"...I will send one of them, without fail."
Baek Museong looked surprised.
He had not expected the Buddha Venerable to grant such a demand.
"Are you starting to look for a pretext to destroy the Martial Alliance?"
"Not at all."
The Buddha Venerable rose from his seat. Then he slowly turned.
"The time has come regardless."
And with those words, he vanished in an instant.
Baek Museong spread out his spiritual perception to search for a trace of the Buddha Venerable, but he could not begin to work out how the man had concealed himself.
Clench.
Baek Museong clenched his teeth hard.
He had reached Transcendental Unity and gained the power to read the energy of heaven and earth and see through the currents of the world.
Even so, he could not see an inch into the old monster before him, and every time he faced him, he felt as though he were sinking into a bottomless quagmire.
'No. It is only an absence of information.'
He himself had only just begun his grand design.
The Buddha Venerable, however, had agents planted over decades, and an information network like a spiderweb.
In the end, this gap was not a matter of that demon monk's wisdom being superior.
It was that the man saw and heard what Baek Museong could not.
'Wait just a little longer.'
There was only one reason he clung so stubbornly to this humiliating Alliance Leader's seat.
It was to grasp every piece of information and every hidden truth that old monster knew.
And to complete a force that would surpass the information organization the man possessed.
'I will topple you soon enough.'
Before long, an intelligence force that would yield to no one would be completed in his own hands.
When that day came, it would not be that loathsome demon monk alone.
He would be able to deliver a scathing counterstroke to every one of those who had thought of him as a piece on a board.
* * *
The Orthodox Path Alliance stood under the Buddha Venerable's command.
It founded the Eight Route Army to hold back the forces from beyond the border.
It was not simply a matter of dividing the host into eight.
It was the Buddha Venerable's opening play, taking the vast continent of the Central Plains for a go board and setting his stones to deal with the incoming forces from beyond the border.
The heads of every sect gathered in the council hall were watching the Buddha Venerable, who stood beside an enormous map.
"The enemies are not one but many, and their aims differ from one another as well. In the end, their numerical advantage, which might be called their greatest strength, may also become their greatest weakness."
The Buddha Venerable's voice was low and quiet, yet it had the power to still every sound in the hall.
"When many forces gather, they inevitably harbor discord. This old monk intends to dig into that crack."
The Buddha Venerable swept his gaze gently over those seated, then indicated Baek Museong as though it were the most natural thing.
"Alliance Leader Baek will give you the rest of the explanation."
Baek Museong saluted as though he had been waiting for it and stepped forward.
Then he began to reorganize the forces gathered under the name of the Orthodox Path Alliance with great precision, and to deploy them to the front.
The First Route Army and the Second Route Army were the elite main force, led by Shaolin and Wudang, the undisputed pillars of the righteous path.
The order handed down to them was, unexpectedly, not to advance but to hold.
"The Iron Cavalry Alliance out of the north comes on the fiercest. The First and Second Armies must unfurl the Vajra Stone Wall Formation at Heavenly Drum Gorge and blunt their spearhead."
The Third Route Army organized a detached force made up of small and middling sects.
"The Black Forest Cult of the southern barbarian lands is skilled with poison mist and ambush, so a head-on confrontation is a poor strategy. To catch a snake, one must know the snake's paths. Let the Third Route Army raise a commotion as though striking the enemy's home base, and pin them down deep in the marshes of Yunnan."
The Fourth Route Army was assigned to the Martial Soul Society.
"The Red Cloud Sect and the Dark Resonance Esoteric Sect of the Western Regions are a rabble whose aim is plunder. We shall throw down bait to blind them. Build a false supply base around Geumchang, filled with provisions and treasure. When greed blinds them and they come rushing in, they will be rats in a jar."
The Sixth and Seventh Route Armies were assigned to the Eight Great Families.
They were given the task of guerrilla units, scattering across the Central Plains to build defensive lines and harry the enemy's rear.
And the last, the Eighth Route Army, was made up of the warriors of the Martial Alliance.
"The demons of the Four Great Demonic Lands will use the chaos of the battlefield to gnaw at us from within. Tear them out by the roots before they can sprout."
Baek Museong saw perfectly through the character of each sect and the advantages of the terrain, and he put his finger precisely on the enemy's weaknesses.
The first battle was against the Iron Armor Army of the Iron Cavalry Alliance, which had come in through Jade Gate Pass.
Baek Museong used a plan of feint and substance, deliberately advancing only half of the Shaolin and Wudang forces.
They played at being routed and drew the enemy deep inside the pass.
Then the archer corps he had readied beyond the mountain range poured down a rain of arrows that covered the sky.
And so, in the space of a single night, twenty thousand of the Iron Cavalry Alliance's main force were wiped out.
The Black Forest Cult of the southern barbarian lands, meanwhile, was a force of poison masters armed with venom and demonic arts, and Baek Museong handed down a marvelous order.
"Their poison spreads along the vegetation, so we need only burn the grass first."
And so the jungles of Yunnan were set alight.
Three lines of fire wrapped around the Black Forest Cult's encampment and closed in.
The warriors of the Orthodox Path Alliance leapt into those flames and drove their blades through the hearts of the cultists in the ash-gray smoke.
The sky was red, and the earth burned black.
The Red Cloud Sect and the Dark Resonance Esoteric Sect of the Western Regions, for their part, moved together.
They turned their forces west to raid the supply base the Martial Soul Society had built.
But the Society Leader had placed his men on the cliffs above the gorge in advance, leaving the center of the gorge open as bait.
When the soldiers of the Red Cloud Sect came pouring into the gorge, the Society Leader let loose a Lion's Roar.
In that instant, poison fog settled from both walls of the gorge at once, heaps of stone came pouring down, and the faithful of the Dark Resonance Esoteric Sect were buried beneath the mountain.
The last battlefield was Nakyang, where the Four Great Demonic Lands had gathered.
This fight fell to the Eighth Route Army, made up of the Martial Alliance's own warriors, so their pride was on the line.
"Annihilate them!"
The demons of the Four Great Demonic Lands boasted tremendous martial prowess.
But Baek Museong had already calculated their tactics and their strength, and he wiped them out with an uncanny, godlike strategy.
Word that the forces from beyond the border had been wiped out must already have reached the chiefs of the Four Great Demonic Lands.
They held out no longer and retreated, scattering in every direction.
Baek Museong did not go out of his way to pursue them and destroy them to the last.
Their skill was not to be taken lightly, and sweeping them all away would have demanded a heavy sacrifice.
―'Waaaaah!'
The shout of the Orthodox Path Alliance, which had won a great victory, spread across the dawn sky as day broke.
The forces from beyond the border had risen without warning.
The Central Plains martial world had joined its strength and held the enemy off.
And the Buddha Venerable's command and Baek Museong's leadership had proved them more than fit for the seats of Lord of the Phoenix and Alliance Leader of the Martial Alliance.
There was no longer any such thing as a divided Martial Alliance.
A great banquet was held at the Martial Alliance.
It celebrated the great victory, and the heads of every sect who had gladly lent their strength were invited to it.
The vast banquet hall was bright as broad day with hundreds of lanterns, and full of the fierce heat of warriors freshly returned from the battlefield.
Having set down their steel-hard armor and blood-soaked weapons, they laughed and talked at the top of their lungs—ordinary men at last.
Food was heaped like mountains and fragrant wine flowed without end, and someone beat on a table and sang a song of victory.
―'Those Iron Cavalry Alliance dogs. For all the rumors, they went down like scarecrows!'
―'The Black Forest Cult's poison was nothing but a heat shimmer before this sect's swords!'
The warriors knocked their cups together and traded tales of valor from the battles just past.
Then, all at once, the hall fell quiet.
Two men had walked into the banquet hall.
One was the Lord of the Phoenix, the Buddha Venerable, who had founded the Orthodox Path Alliance and gathered the strength of the righteous martial world.
The other had boldly ceded his own full authority, mending the Martial Alliance's division at a stroke, and had taken supreme command of this campaign.
He was Baek Museong, the rising sun of the righteous martial world.
As they walked in, every figure in the hall rose from his seat and saluted with respect.
With every eye upon him, the Buddha Venerable opened his mouth with a placid smile.
"This victory was achieved by the blood and sweat of every warrior who loves the Central Plains."
His voice was still low and quiet, yet every soul in the banquet hall heard it clearly.
"We have won, but we have also lost many heroes."
Baek Museong took up the words after him.
"For the heroes who went before us, and for the peace of this land that we have defended, let us raise our cups."
When the Buddha Venerable and Baek Museong raised their cups high, the hundreds of warriors gathered in the hall rose as one and struck their cups together.
―'The Martial Alliance has gained a giant.'
The people in the hall could not contain their admiration for the noble presence the two displayed.
Little did they know that beneath their serene, transcendent demeanors, master and disciple harbored coiled serpents of greed and deceit.
That everything that had happened up to now was nothing more than a single conspiracy.
―'Namgung Jeong, Palace Master of the Southern Palace.'
Tang Gon, Clan Master of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Yeong Cheongja of the Wudang Sect.
Bukgung Ryeong, Leader of the Azure Sky Alliance.
Seolso, Leader of the Martial Soul Society.
That deep within the Martial Alliance, an extermination order like King Yama's Book of Life and Death had already come down upon them.
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