Chapter 339 : Righteousness (1)
Chapter 339: Righteousness (1)
Deep within the headquarters of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, a strange silence had settled over the Lesser Sun Palace.
‘That crazy Dokgo had actually set me up!!!’
Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang cursed Dokgo Ryong under his breath, but quickly realized it was pointless.
‘No, the real mistake was mine for running my mouth to that idiot in the first place.’
He'd known full well that Dokgo Ryong was the kind of man who acted without thinking, so blaming him was just as stupid. More than anything, this wasn't the time to be resenting anyone.
Should he tell the truth? Or should he play it safe and flatter the new Cult Leader?
The thought crossed his mind for just a moment before he let out a quiet, self-deprecating laugh.
"Forgive my impudence, but the 'vessel' I spoke of to the Head of the Dokgo Family was not you, Cult Leader."
In the end, he was a proud old warrior who absolutely had zero intention of living like a groveling sycophant.
Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang's blunt words made the already suffocating atmosphere in the palace even heavier.
"...Then tell me, who exactly do you believe possesses the true vessel for the Cult Leader’s throne?" Wi Jin-hak asked with a serious expression.
Bracing himself for a fight with an enraged Wi Jin-hak if it came to that, Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang answered honestly, "I was speaking of Young Master Il-mok."
What followed was not at all what he'd expected.
"Bwahahaha!"
Wi Jin-hak burst into laughter, then brought up something entirely unrelated out of nowhere. "Say, do you happen to know a man named Hang Geon? He joined our Divine Cult a few years ago."
"...That name doesn't ring a bell."
"He was originally a centurion in the Imperial Army. He ended up getting caught by our youngest while running around as a bandit out in Xinjiang."
Why on earth was he bringing up some nobody like that?
Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang held his curiosity and waited for Wi Jin-hak to continue.
"After he was caught, Hang Geon was so moved by what my youngest said to him that he swore to serve him as his liege, and that's how he ended up joining the Divine Cult. Remarkable, isn't it? Back then, our youngest was still a total rookie who hadn't even been Master's official disciple for half a year!"
Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang felt a strange sense of déjà vu listening to the story about Hang Geon, because the part about being so struck by Il-mok that he'd pledged his loyalty overlapped with his own experience in a way he couldn't ignore.
"Do you know what the very first thing that man said to me was on the day we met?"
"...This old one is dull-witted, and nothing comes to mind."
"Haha. He looked me in the eye and said that since he serves Young Master Il-mok as his liege, and Young Master Il-mok is loyal to this Eldest Brother, then this Eldest Brother of his must also be his liege as well!"
"......"
Only then did Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang understand why Wi Jin-hak had laughed like that, and why he hadn't been angry.
‘He's saying things are different now from how they used to be.’
Because he remembered the days when Wi Jin-hak was called the Mad Demon and had watched that period of his life for so long, the image that first came to mind was of a man ruled by explosive rage.
And it was only now that he realized he'd had the wrong picture of Wi Jin-hak all along.
"I know as well that our youngest has what it takes to be the Cult Leader. More than that, the boy has everything it takes to one day rise to the seat of the Heavenly Demon. But he is still young. Protecting and nurturing the Divine Cult until he has fully grown is what our late Master wanted of me, and it is what I must accomplish."
Hearing Wi Jin-hak's words, Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang found himself thinking of something Il-mok had once told him in the past.
‘Didn't the Eighth Young Master tell me before that the Eldest Young Master also possessed the vessel befitting of a Cult Leader?'
It made him wonder whether that young boy might actually have a sharper eye for people than he himself did.
"So I ask that you, Head of the Hyeokryeon Family, trust in me and follow my lead as well. Since you have already sworn to follow our youngest, you must lend me your strength for at least as long as the youngest continues to trust and follow me."
"I will do so."
Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang bowed his head in respect, and Wi Jin-hak gave a satisfied nod before tossing out a light remark. "Oh, and since you'll be taking over as Grand Teacher, you'll get a chance to meet that Hang Geon fellow too. Hahaha. He's part of the Grand Teacher's faction, after all."
"...I'll make sure to have a talk with him sometime."
"Hahaha. Please do."
With that bit of small talk out of the way, Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang gave one last bow and stepped out of the Lesser Sun Palace.
He made his way toward the Grand Teacher's hall to carry out Wi Jin-hak's orders, but as he walked, his expression was complicated.
He tilted his head back to look up at the sky and murmured to himself.
"...Brothers who actually get along."
***
Meanwhile, Il-mok was trying extremely hard to completely mask the discomfort on his face.
Since they were still keeping the name of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult hidden, an alliance with the Hwangbo Family was incredibly useful in various ways.
With the Hwangbo family as a shield, he could keep his identity hidden for a good while longer.
However, a political marriage was a completely different nightmare.
No matter how he looked at it, he was a Young Master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and now the junior martial brother of the Cult Leader. That basically makes him the martial uncle to everyone in the Demonic Cult from the next generation onward.
The idea of him marrying a woman from one of the Seven Great Families of the Orthodox Faction was just absurd.
‘...Thank the heavens I sent Seon-ah away beforehand.’
After briefly distracting himself with that idle thought, Il-mok quickly snapped back to reality and furiously racked his brain.
He desperately needed to figure out a polite way to cleanly reject this woman's absurd proposal without destroying their alliance with the Hwangbo Family.
Just as he was internally sweating, entirely unable to find a safe answer...
"O’ Incarnation!! B-Buddhist nuns and Taoist monks have suddenly arrived at our branch in
There, there are nuns and Taoist priests at the branch hall in Guangyuan County! They claim they are representatives from the Emei Sect and the Qingcheng Sect!"
Not exactly the lifeline he'd been hoping for, but an escape nonetheless.
‘So it's starting.’
He had a gut feeling that things were about to get chaotic.
***
Inside the carriage, a woman with a muscular physique unbefitting of a standard noble lady and a woman hiding her face behind a delicate veil sat across from one another.
"Isn't proposing marriage to someone you've only met twice a bit much?"
Faced with Hwangbo Yeon's question, Hwangbo Se-hui gave a faint smile, "There are plenty of women who've married men they've never even laid eyes on once. If Father hadn't been so fond of me, I would've been the same."
"While that is certainly true, that just means you need to be even more careful when picking your husband."
If her precious younger sister accidentally got entangled with some weirdo, their father would raise hell and annihilate the man’s family without a second thought.
"That's exactly why I brought up marriage. I've only seen him in person twice, but they say you can know a person by looking at those around them."
When she mentioned his 'surroundings,' she definitely wasn't talking about the pretty maids who followed the Incarnation around all day.
The two sisters had been staying in Lanzhou for several days while waiting for the Incarnation of Maitreya to show up.
"I've never seen a place where the common people live so happily. And that includes Shandong, where our Hwangbo family has its roots."
Every single day, they could see the ordinary people singing the praises of the Maitreya Luminous Cult. And it wasn’t the result of some coercion or influence of some shady drugs or brainwashing.
The Maitreya Luminous Cult actively poured charity and protection over the commoners, and the people revered them in return.
"Not only did he build the Maitreya Luminous Cult into something this significant in just a few years, but he did it without squeezing a single coin out of the common folk. If anything, he's been giving back to them. So I don't think there's any room left to question his character or his ability."
"...That may be true, but being capable in public and being good in private life are two different things. There are plenty of men who are honest and talented but still can't keep it in their pants. Why do you think that old saying 'great men love women' even exists?"
"You don't need to worry about that."
Hwangbo Yeon gave her sister a puzzled look, and Se-hui pulled back her veil and smiled softly.
"When I brought up marriage, I made sure to look right into his eyes. Far from looking happy or excited, he looked blatantly annoyed and deeply troubled by the whole thing. And that was after he saw my face."
"...So you took off the veil on purpose to test him."
"It wasn't a test. Honestly, I hadn't even expected that kind of reaction. But that reaction was exactly what made me certain my instincts weren't wrong."
Hwangbo Yeon let out a sigh at the sight of her sister who was well and truly smitten.
"Even so, don't do that again. You'd be risking drawing in the wrong kind of attention from greedy, shameless men."
Seeing her older sister's worried expression, Hwangbo Se-hui lowered her veil again. "I won't do it again, so please let it slide just this once."
"Fine. I'll let it go this time."
A silence settled over the carriage before Hwangbo Se-hui spoke up again to shift the topic. "What do you think the Maitreya Luminous Cult will do this time?"
"...My guess is that they'll pull back from Sichuan." Hwangbo Yeon answered carefully, then quietly turned her gaze toward the carriage wall.
The carriage they were riding in was heading south, not toward Shandong.
In truth, the marriage proposal Se-hui had brought up hadn't been something the Hwangbo Family had decided on. It was entirely Se-hui acting on her own.
However, the matter of a formal political alliance was a very real ongoing discussion.
And Hwangbo Yeon was heading to Sichuan to see for herself whether forming one was truly the right call by following the Maitreya's Incarnate to see him in action.
***
North of Sichuan Province, Guangyuan County.
Il-mok had rushed all the way from Lanzhou via carriage and made a beeline straight for the local Maitreya Luminous Cult branch the second he arrived in the county.
His four maids trailed closely behind him, alongside the two noblewomen of the Hwangbo Family.
The only reason Il-mok had allowed the sisters to tag along was because of Hwangbo Yeon's rather generous offer.
—If it is a conflict involving the Nine Great Sects and One Gang, we may be able to step in and mediate so things don't blow up unnecessarily.
Since she was offering to take the Maitreya Luminous Cult's side, there was no real reason to push them away.
When they arrived at the branch office together, they found nuns in grey robes and Taoists in ceremonial caps blocking the entrance.
Sensing someone approaching, their gazes all swung toward Il-mok at once.
"Are you the so-called Incarnation of Maitreya?"
One of the Qingcheng Sect elders recognized the mask and asked the question.
"I am, but what business does your group have with the Maitreya Luminous Cult?"
"Ha. Shameless to the last."
One of the older Emei nuns shot him a sharp look as she said it, and the maidservants standing behind Il-mok bristled with hostility.
Il-mok raised a hand to calm them down, then asked again, "Did you come all this way just to pick a fight? I'd appreciate it if you'd explain exactly why you're here."
The old Emei nun looked about ready to blow up at that, but before she could, an older Taoist from the Qingcheng Sect stepped forward.
"I am Cheongmok of Qingcheng. And this is Abbess Miejue of Emei. The reason we've come is simple. Sichuan has always been under the protection of our two sects, and we've come to ask you to withdraw."
(TL Note: Abbess Miejue is a reference for a character from the Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Saber by Jin Yong.)
At that straightforward explanation from Cheongmok Jinin, Il-mok tilted his head.
"Withdraw? I'm not sure what you mean by that."
"Don't play word games with me! While our Emei and Qingcheng were at war with the Blood Cult, you lot sneaked in and seized this place!"
This time Abbess Miejue exploded before Taoist Master Cheongmok could get a word in.
"I really don't understand what kind of hypocritical nonsense you've been spewing this whole time. Seized it? We simply looked after the common folk here. So what you're saying is, you want us to stop helping the common people? Is that it?"
Il-mok said this and let out a short, openly derisive laugh.
"That's rich. What right do you have to stop anyone from helping ordinary people?"
"You bastard!! Do you think we came all this way to listen to you talk in circles?!"
Unable to contain her exploding fury, Abbess Miejue reached for the sword at her hip.
"That sword."
A terrifying pressure radiated outward from Il-mok's body and bore down on Abbess Miejue.
"Draw it and you die."