Yong Myeong stared at the face of Seon Woojin and froze in shock.
“How are you here?”
Yong Myeong was a senior pillar of the Martial Alliance.
His whereabouts were strictly guarded and never disclosed to the outside.
From the moment he left the Alliance, he had been under the protection of the Star Guard Division.
Yet this man had slipped past their eyes like a ghost and appeared in his private study?
“I told you… not to touch my family.”
The eyes of Bu Eunseol—who had assumed Seon Woojin’s appearance through reverse cultivation—burned crimson.
“Did you think my warning was a joke?”
Crack.
At that instant, a terrifying pressure crushed Yong Myeong’s body, forcing his spine to bend.
“You dare flaunt your inner energy before this old man?”
Yong Myeong sneered and summoned his own power.
He was from the Honghuang Sect, famed for its supreme inner cultivation methods, and had once been called “Peerless Merit” for the sheer depth of his inner force.
To be suppressed by raw power alone?
“Ugh…”
Yet a groan escaped his lips.
No matter how fiercely he circulated his energy, he could not resist the pressure.
The overwhelming force paralyzed him; he could not even twitch a finger.
“I thought a Hall Leader would hold some real strings—turns out you were just a disposable pawn of the lowest branch of the Three Realms.”
At Bu Eunseol’s words, Yong Myeong’s eyes widened in horror.
Even the leaders of the great sects barely knew of the Three Realms—how could this whelp know?
“How…?”
Only then did Yong Myeong realize that the Supreme Corps Captain Seon Woojin was no ordinary martial artist from the merchant world.
“Did you… kill all of them?”
Bu Eunseol had already slaughtered every assassin of the Nine Demons Tower, the Crimson-and-Azure Twin Freaks, and Do Geumung—puppets of the Three Realms.
The Death Spirit Corps had erased every trace.
When he traced the threads connecting Yong Myeong, they did not lead to the Three Realms cell hiding inside the Alliance, but to the Blue Salt Poison Sect, manipulated by the Fifth Envoy of the Infinite Realm—one of the Four Great Perils.
“You… are not Seon Woojin!”
“Such a talkative insect.”
Thud.
Bu Eunseol stepped forward and flicked two finger-winds, sealing Yong Myeong’s mute and paralysis acupoints.
The man collapsed like a log.
Bu Eunseol looked down with cold eyes.
Tremble.
Yong Myeong’s eyes bulged in terror as Bu Eunseol sneered.
“Don’t worry. Torturing you would only dirty my hands.”
Yong Myeong inwardly exhaled in relief.
The torture methods of martial artists were different from those of common folk.
Having constantly tempered body and spirit, they could endure ordinary pain.
Thus the martial world had developed techniques like Bone-Shattering Muscle-Tearing—tortures that could shatter even a trained warrior’s flesh and soul.
“Instead, I will cripple your entire family and lock them for life in a sewer flowing with filth.”
Yong Myeong shook with rage and dread.
He himself could die without regret.
But his family was another matter.
His aged mother, his beloved wife, his precious children whom he would not let a speck of dust touch—he could not let them die.
‘Never touch another’s family.’
That was an iron rule shared by orthodox and demonic alike.
Bu Eunseol had explicitly called his subordinates family and warned never to touch them.
Yong Myeong had ignored that warning.
Therefore Bu Eunseol now had every right to touch Yong Myeong’s family.
Tremble.
Yong Myeong strained with all his might and stared desperately.
‘Please. Please. Please.’
Bu Eunseol calmly released the mute acupoint.
“I will take my own life!”
The moment he could speak, Yong Myeong shouted frantically.
“I will commit suicide! That will satisfy you, won’t it?”
He roared like a cornered beast.
“If I write a confession in my own hand and sever my heart meridians, your subordinate’s wish will be fulfilled!”
Yong Myeong knew.
Tae Muryong had sacrificed himself with this very plan—solely so Bu Eunseol could remain in the Alliance.
If Yong Myeong wrote in his own hand that he had colluded with external forces and ordered Tae Muryong’s death to escape punishment, then committed suicide…
The goal would be achieved.
“You provoked me precisely to find proof that I ordered the murder and silencing of witnesses, didn’t you?”
He begged.
“There is no need to ruin the loyalty your subordinate risked his life for!”
‘So that you… could remain in the Alliance for a long time without ever being suspected again.’
Even as his breath faded, Tae Muryong had wished for Bu Eunseol to stay in the Alliance.
Bu Eunseol bit his lip.
He no longer cared about the Alliance.
Yet he could not bring himself to destroy with his own hands the plan Tae Muryong had died to complete.
If even the Dragon Coiling Hall Leader fell, no one would ever again dare call him a spy.
With Bu Eunseol’s intellect, he would ensure such suspicion never arose again.
Thud.
Suddenly Yong Myeong’s body felt light.
Bu Eunseol had silently released the paralysis acupoint.
“Th-thank you.”
Yong Myeong hurriedly sat at the desk and seized brush and ink.
Instantly his body froze again and only his right arm remained free.
Bu Eunseol had resealed every point except the one needed to write.
Scratch, scratch.
Without hesitation, Yong Myeong wrote that he had colluded with external forces, that Tae Muryong had discovered it, that he had ordered the man’s assassination, and that he now took his own life in fear of the punishment hall’s verdict.
He had indeed exchanged countless messages with the Three Realms so the punishment hall would easily find proof.
“Is this sufficient?”
Yong Myeong set down the brush and looked at Bu Eunseol.
His handwriting was strong and there was no trace of coercion.
“Check it yourself. No one will ever doubt it.”
The moment Bu Eunseol stepped forward to read the confession—
Fwoosh!
Countless silver gleams erupted from the bookshelf toward Bu Eunseol’s face.
At the same instant, an invisible powder scattered through the air.
One-Leaf Daggers, hidden weapons said to pierce even diamond bodies, and Scatter-Meridian Powder, a single breath of which would shatter one’s cultivation.
Bu Eunseol casually swept them all aside with a gust of wind.
Stab.
Yet a razor-sharp dagger now protruded from his heart.
Yong Myeong, whose paralysis points had supposedly been sealed, had moved like lightning.
“BWAHAHA!”
Yong Myeong threw his head back and laughed in triumph.
“Did you truly believe you had sealed this Hall Leader’s points?”
He looked at Bu Eunseol with utter confidence.
“In the martial world, one survives by keeping a hidden trump card others know nothing about. Mine was precisely the Three Essences Flowing White Energy.”
Three Essences Flowing White Energy.
A legendary Daoist breathing art that once mastered, no acupoint sealing could ever suppress one’s inner energy.
He had been completely unsealed from the beginning, merely pretending while waiting for the perfect moment.
“Little brat. Did you think raw power alone—”
Yong Myeong’s expression twisted grotesquely mid-sentence.
In his excitement, he had only now noticed that no blood flowed from Bu Eunseol’s chest.
Drip, drip.
Bu Eunseol pulled out the dagger.
Only the hilt remained—the blade had shattered the instant it touched him.
“Don’t come closer!” He deliberately roared like thunder and unleashed a palm strike.
Even though he had erected a barrier of energy to contain all sound within the room, he hoped the shout would pierce it.
Thud.
No sound escaped, and his body froze once more, collapsing to the floor.
Having seen through the Three Essences Flowing White Energy, Bu Eunseol had instantly frozen him solid with the Heavenly Glacial Secret.
“Heh heh heh. It changes nothing.”
Yong Myeong laughed through his ice-bound body.
“Do you know why I wrote the confession in my own hand? Because I never intended to kill myself. Hahaha!”
He laughed gleefully.
“No matter how great your abilities are, you cannot fake the traces of someone severing their own heart meridians. When I die, you will still be suspected!”
He shouted in wicked delight.
“No matter how many times you die and come back, you will never again be able to remain in the Alliance! HAHAHA!”
A martial artist’s suicide is nearly impossible to fake.
Most end their lives by severing their own heart meridians.
If an outsider uses energy to do it, some trace of coercion will always remain.
“This Hall Leader merely has to endure a few more sessions in the punishment hall.”
Yong Myeong’s smile turned venomous.
“Of course, you can simply flee the Alliance. But that Tae Muryong… I will mobilize every ounce of my power to hunt him down and kill him.”
Fwoosh.
The moment he mentioned Tae Muryong, bloodlust flared in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
That was Yong Myeong’s fatal mistake.
Had he simply committed suicide, Bu Eunseol would at least have preserved the man’s honor.
But to threaten Tae Muryong again, vowing to kill him?
Honor was the least he would lose. Bu Eunseol would make him taste every torment imaginable and brand him with eternal infamy even in death.
“Filth like you has no right to live.”
Bu Eunseol placed his hand on Yong Myeong’s lower abdomen.
In an instant, Yong Myeong’s entire cultivation method began flowing into Bu Eunseol.
The exclusive secret of the Heavenly Emperor—Heavenly Mirror Heart Sutra—had activated.
“So you practiced not only Three Essences Flowing White Energy, but the Jade Palace Heart Art as well.”
The moment he synchronized with Yong Myeong’s cultivation, a faint jade glow appeared between Bu Eunseol’s brows.
“H-how is this possible?!”
Yong Myeong’s eyes nearly burst from their sockets.
“How do you know the Alliance Leader’s exclusive secret art?!”
Those were the last coherent words he ever spoke.
“GRAAAAAHHH!”
Suddenly Yong Myeong began to howl.
Having perfectly read his energy circulation, Bu Eunseol reversed it.
Tremble-tremble-tremble.
Unable even to scream properly, Yong Myeong’s eyes rolled back white.
Reversing one’s cultivation was the same as attacking the body with its own true energy.
Yet because it used only the victim’s own power, it left no external trace.
“ARRGHHH…”
Yong Myeong convulsed.
He wanted to scream, but it felt as though an invisible hand clamped his mouth shut.
Only half an incense stick’s time had passed, yet his face aged as though he had been tortured for a lifetime.
“WAAAAAHHH…”
In the end he wailed like a child.
And that was the last sound he made in this world.
FWOOSH.
Bu Eunseol used the absorbed Jade Palace Divine Art to sever Yong Myeong’s heart meridians in a single burst.
Thud.
Yong Myeong slumped forward, face buried in the desk, dead.
Perhaps because of the resentment of his death, his eyes remained grotesquely wide.
“I will not touch your family.”
Bu Eunseol gazed down coldly and muttered.
“I will not become the same kind of trash as you.”
Float.
He seated Yong Myeong’s corpse upright at the desk, then let out a deep sigh as Tae Muryong’s dying face rose in his mind.
“In the end, things unfold exactly as the Vice-Captain wished.”
He had intended to leave the Alliance for good this time.
Yet he could not break the stubborn will of the man who had given his life for this plan.
Since Tae Muryong had died to complete it, Bu Eunseol resolved once more—as he had until now—to remain and rise to Hall Leader.
Moreover, Yong Myeong had indeed colluded with the Blue Salt Poison Sect, a lower branch of the Three Realms and a match for the Four Great Perils so there was no need to fabricate evidence.
“No helping it.”
Turning away, Bu Eunseol gazed at the bright full moon.
He was neither demonic nor orthodox.
And from this day forward, his men were no longer mere subordinates of the Supreme Corps Captain.
They were Bu Eunseol’s men—his family.
***
Just as the death of the former Secret Flower Garden Lord, revealed by the old Enforcement Commander Jongjeong Yak as an external spy, had been quietly handled, Yong Myeong’s suicide was swiftly buried.
If it became known that a Dragon Coiling Hall Leader had colluded with outside forces to murder an Alliance member, the shame would be irreversible, and the very foundation of the Martial Alliance—the guardian of justice—would shake.
Yet such truths could not be completely hidden.
Soon rumors spread like wildfire: Yong Myeong had tried to remove Yuk Jangcheon and silence Tae Muryong to bring down Seon Woojin.
Yong Myeong’s closest aides and even his clan could no longer show their faces in the martial world.
Yeon Jagang took his own life in the thunder prison.
The sin of fabricating evidence out of jealousy toward the Supreme Corps Captain was too great.
Upon hearing of Yong Myeong’s suicide, he realized that far from reclaiming a Hall Leader position, he would bear filthy infamy for life—and ended it without hesitation.
Yeon Jagang, who had tasted the sweetness of power as a Hall Leader, had tried desperately to regain it, only to walk an irreversible path.
“Hahaha!”
Yuk Jangcheon walked toward the northern gate forest where the Supreme Corps was stationed, grinning ear to ear.
His greatest rival Yong Myeong, who had competed with him for the Martial Heaven Corps Commander seat, had colluded with external forces, failed to eliminate Yuk Jangcheon and Tae Muryong, and committed suicide?
It was as if someone had wiped his nose for him without him lifting a finger.
With Yong Myeong gone, no one remained to contest the Martial Heaven Corps position.
Given time, Yuk Jangcheon would naturally ascend.
“And even Baek Museong has vanished—there will be no more obstacles.”
In truth, he had feared Yuk Cheongah and Baek Museong more than Yong Myeong.
Yuk Cheongah’s intellect was formidable, and she knew him far too well.
Baek Museong had been a rising star surpassing even Seon Woojin.
But with the Dragon Coiling Hall Leader dead, Yuk Cheongah was powerless, and Baek Museong had left the Alliance of his own accord.
When the right moment came, Yuk Jangcheon would naturally become Martial Heaven Corps Commander.
“Hall Leader!”
A figure came running frantically.
It was Sang Gubaek, chief strategist of the former Dragon Coiling Hall.
“What is it?”
“Terrible news!”
“Terrible?”
“Yuk Cheongah, who had transferred to Dragon Coiling Hall, has just been appointed Hall Leader of Dragon Coiling!”
“What?”
For a moment Yuk Jangcheon doubted his own ears.
Of course someone would fill the vacant Hall Leader seat.
But to completely ignore seniority and procedure and appoint the youngest Hall Leader, Yuk Cheongah?
It was absurd.
“What nonsense is this? How can Cheongah possibly become Hall Leader?”
“I don’t know the details, only that it was decided at a meeting chaired by the Vice-Alliance Leader.”
“The Vice-Alliance Leader? Then why was I not summoned?”
“Only the seven great Commanders, the Chief Inspector, and the Elder Hall Leaders attended.”
“Elder Hall Leaders? Don’t tell me…”
Yuk Jangcheon let out a low, bitter laugh.
Yuk Cheongah was the sole disciple of the previous Elder Hall Leader, the South Sea Divine Nun.
And the South Sea Divine Nun’s name was engraved on the Alliance’s Heroes Stele.
“Did they bring up the Heroes Stele matter?”
The reason the South Sea Divine Nun had died young: While artisans were repairing the old Hanbing Pass inside the Alliance, they had fallen en masse into a trap.
The Nun had thrown herself in without hesitation, sacrificing her cultivation and lifespan to save them.
For that merit, her name was added to the Heroes Stele after death.
Anyone whose name was inscribed on the Heroes Stele could grant their descendant one wish within the Alliance.
But the Nun had been an orphan with no blood relatives so only late in life had she taken Yuk Cheongah as a disciple.
Yuk Jangcheon suddenly wondered if they had invoked her status as the Nun’s successor to demand the Hall Leader seat.
“That couldn’t be. That rule exists only on paper—no one has ever used it.”
Sang Gubaek frowned.
“There are also rumors that the late Hall Leader made some prior deal with her. It may have been planned all along.”
“Or the Alliance Leader himself intervened.”
Yuk Jangcheon stroked his chin.
“Like with Chief Inspector Gongsun.”
Recently, Alliance Leader Shindo Mubi had been criticized by the senior leadership for trying to dismantle the old hierarchy and promote the young.
It was largely because his influence had placed Gongsun Dankyung as Chief Inspector—an unprecedented move.
Fortunately Gongsun Dankyung had proven herself one of the most capable Chief Inspectors in history, or the uproar would have been far worse.
“I don’t know. But until a new Dragon Coiling Hall Leader is chosen, Lady Yuk effectively is the Dragon Coiling Hall Leader.”
“Hmm.” Yuk Jangcheon pondered deeply, then actually smiled. “A flat road is boring. Consider it a gentle hill added to the path.”
He wore a confident smile.
“Her true goal was never something as small as Dragon Coiling Hall Leader.”
He knew.
Yuk Cheongah dreamed of becoming the first Empress of the martial world.
And “Empress” did not mean standing on stage basking in attention.
It meant the hidden sovereign who controlled the entire board from the shadows.
To achieve that dream, she had woven meticulous plans, manipulating countless people behind the scenes, steadily advancing step by step.
Even summoning Yuk Jangcheon had been part of that plan.
But Seon Woojin’s appearance had shattered everything.
Instead of becoming Yuk Cheongah’s puppet, Yuk Jangcheon had chosen to use Seon Woojin and carve his own path.
She had tried to use Baek Museong as a new pawn, but he had walked out of the Alliance on his own two feet.
With no moves left, she had no choice but to step into the light herself.
“No need to worry.”
Yuk Jangcheon finished his thoughts and smirked.
“Her becoming Hall Leader only proves how desperate she is.”
Step, step.
At that moment, a figure approached from the opposite direction.
A woman in resplendent robes embroidered with twin phoenixes.
It was Yuk Cheongah, soon to be officially instated as Dragon Coiling Hall Leader.
“What a coincidence meeting here.”
Yuk Jangcheon gave a faint smile.
There are no coincidences.
Especially not on the bamboo-lined path to the northern gate—one came here only to visit the Supreme Corps.
She had clearly timed her arrival to intercept him.
“Congratulations.”
He smiled blandly.
“I hear you’ve been appointed Hall Leader of Dragon Coiling.”
“Thank you. It just… happened.”
“Heh heh. That’s not something that ‘just happens.’”
“Is it not?”
Yuk Cheongah narrowed her eyes and whispered.
“We are now rivals, Father.”
“Heh heh heh.”
Yuk Jangcheon laughed as if the idea were absurd.
“How could father and daughter ever be rivals?”
There had never been any warm bond between them.
Yet he deliberately spoke with false tenderness to provoke her.
“Why not return to your father’s side?”
“Have you forgotten whose support made you Ascendant Martial Hall Leader?”
“Cheongah, you are no match for me.”
Yuk Cheongah smiled calmly.
“A moment ago you insisted we could not be rivals because we are family. Now you speak as if we are.”
“…”
“Since things have come to this, let us have a fair competition. I look forward to it.”
She turned lightly and walked past him.
Yuk Jangcheon watched her recede and murmured.
“Yes. We shall have a fine rivalry.”
Sang Gubaek, standing beside him, muttered in bewilderment.
“I truly cannot understand. With Chief Inspector Gongsun alone the Alliance is already in chaos. Why do they keep filling senior posts with the young?”
“Actually, this is better.”
Yuk Jangcheon smiled faintly.
“Hall Leader or not, all she can do is cling to my ankles.”
Even if she wielded full authority over Dragon Coiling Hall, she was still unqualified to challenge him directly.
But he did not yet know.
The seat he believed was a contest between two…
Held a third player he had never even considered.
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