Chapter 341 : Righteousness (3)
Chapter 341: Righteousness (3)
It had been a few days since they settled in Guangyuan County.
Il-mok had been receiving reports periodically through the Guangyuan County Branch Leader.
"So they're still poking around our branches, huh."
"Yes. They haven't done anything directly harmful, but they've been going around to the common folk to watch them while keeping tabs on our every move."
Hearing the Branch Leader's explanation, Il-mok felt a humourless laugh threatening to escape him.
The sight of them scrambling desperately to dig up any dirt they could find was just pathetic.
‘It feels like I pissed off some corrupt politician and they've slapped me with a random tax audit.’
A retaliatory tax audit.
It felt surreal to actually experience the kind of targeted harassment he usually only heard about on the evening news and aunties’ soap dramas.
"Anyone watching would think these people were inspectors from the Imperial Court, or agents of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. I have no idea what authority they think they have to dig around like this."
Il-mok clicked his tongue in dismay, and the people nearby nodded along in agreement.
His easygoing attitude, however, had Hwangbo Yeon watching him with a worried expression.
"Incarnation. There's an old saying about finding fault when there is none. Even if they ended up with nothing after digging around you, they might fabricate a perfectly legal excuse to attack you."
"Ha! You make a fair point, Fist Phoenix. Just as you said, they will go fabricate a fake pretext and justification to attack us."
Unable to understand why he was acting so relaxed, Hwangbo Yeon just stared at him.
Il-mok met her gaze and continued unhurriedly.
"Think about it the other way around. Whether I act or whether the Maitreya Luminous Cult acts, they will find a way to fabricate a pretext regardless of the truth. Because the truth is, they've already firmly decided that we drive us out of this region."
"Then why did you send them away that day without doing anything?"
"Because of you, Fist Phoenix."
"Are you saying you let their behavior slide just because I was there?"
Il-mok shook his head.
"I did it because I wanted you to see and hear the truth with your own two eyes and ears, and judge the situation for yourself. I wanted you to personally witness just how far they're willing to push things and to weigh whether our supposed crimes are worse than theirs. At the very least, you didn't strike me as the type of narrow-minded hypocrite who would blindly side with them just because you both wear the same Martial Alliance badge."
Hearing Il-mok's words, a look of realization suddenly washed over Hwangbo Yeon's face.
‘So that's why he never bothered to send me away.’
Even though she was officially here as a proxy of the Hwangbo Family to negotiate the terms in their alliance, the Incarnation of Maitreya had been treating her exactly like one of his own trusted comrades.
Even when taking top-secret briefings from his intelligence officers like he was right now, he had never once asked her to leave the room, completely ignoring the massive risk that she might uncover his cult's dirty secrets.
But looking at the bigger picture now, she realized this utter lack of secrecy was his way of proving to her that his cult had absolutely nothing to hide.
‘It proves just how completely confident he is in his own innocence. What an audacious man.'
She couldn't help but realize that having a leader of this caliber at the helm was the exact reason why the Maitreya Luminous Cult had exploded in power and successfully saved so many lives across different regions in just a short few years.
She was struck by a renewed sense of astonishment.
‘How can one person be this capable in so many different ways?’
It was mind-blowing enough that he had built a massive faction from the ground up in record time; he also had the administrative brilliance and the broad-mindedness to actually uplift the commoners instead of terrorizing them.
‘Moreover, he has already reached such a lofty martial realm before he’s even forty.’
To Hwangbo Yeon, who had only recently broken into the Supreme Peak Realm, the aura that the Incarnation of Maitreya gave off to her was so far that she estimated him to be at the end of the Supreme Peak Realm.
Part of her honestly wondered if he had already broken through into the legendary Realm of Truth.
The reason she placed his level at the far end of the Supreme Peak Realm was purely because of his age. As far as she knew, none of the current Absolute Masters of the Central Plains who had entered the Realm of Truth had reached that level before turning forty.
Little did she know, she couldn't have been more wrong; she couldn't even fathom that the Incarnation of Maitreya wasn't thirty-nine, but was actually a lot younger than she was.
'A sixteen-year age gap is a bit of a shame, but a man like this wouldn't be lacking at all as a husband for Se-hui.’
Without even realizing it, Hwangbo Yeon had already begun painting a mental picture of her younger sister married to the Incarnation of Maitreya.
What she didn't know was that marriage wasn't even an agenda in the man's mind.
***
The next day, around noon, a visitor arrived at the Guangyuan County branch.
"O’ Incarnation. The nuns from Emei and the Taoists from Qingcheng have returned."
Listening to his Branch Leader's report, Il-mok lazily got up from his sunbathing and rose to his feet. "Well then. Let's hear what kind of bullshit they've cooked up this time."
Hearing Il-mok's fearless and joking tone, the cult members standing nearby chuckled in amusement and confidently marched out right behind him.
This time, even Hwangbo Yeon found herself smiling faintly without meaning to.
When Il-mok's group finally walked out to the front gates, an old nun haughtily marched out from the mob of Taoists that had completely surrounded the entrance.
It was Abbess Miejue.
"So bold and proud on the surface, and yet look at the filth you've been up to behind closed doors."
Her voice dripped with contempt, and Il-mok felt the laugh escape him despite himself.
"Go on then. Let's hear what this supposed filth is."
Hearing Il-mok's completely unbothered response, Abbess Miejue gave a derisive snort and turned to look behind her.
The nuns at the back stepped aside to clear a path, and a young man came shuffling forward.
Il-mok had never seen his face before.
Looking incredibly timid, the man nervously slinked forward while glancing around the crowd, eventually taking shelter right next to Abbess Miejue.
"Don't be afraid, child. The Emei Sect pledges to protect you. Speak what you have seen and heard. Amitabha."
With that magnanimous-sounding reassurance from Abbess Miejue, the man opened his mouth carefully.
"I... I used to live in Wangchang County. Our town used to be peacefully protected by a righteous Orthodox Faction’s sect called the Eight Virtues Gate, but then these vicious thugs calling themselves the Maitreya Luminous Cult showed up out of nowhere and violently drove them out."
The moment the man finished speaking, a voice transmission from the Branch Leader slipped into Il-mok's ear.
—It is true that a sect called the Eight Virtues Gate existed in Wangchang County, but they only claimed to be orthodox on the surface. In reality, they were the ones terrorizing and exploiting the common people there.
With that, Il-mok had a clear enough picture of what was going on.
‘Oh, so that's how you want to play this.’
In the meantime, the man was busy enthusiastically rattling off a laundry list of crimes the Maitreya Luminous Cult had supposedly committed.
"The peace that Wangchang County had under the Eight Virtues Gate's rule is gone! The Maitreya Luminous Cult that drove them out has not only been forcibly extorting the common people, but they also don't even hesitate to secretly kidnap and sell women!
Listening any further seemed pointless, so Il-mok cut in.
"So, to summarize, you are claiming that you were a resident of Wangchang County. Is that correct?"
The second Il-mok directly addressed him, the man who had just been screaming so passionately flinched, instantly cowering behind Abbess Miejue's back as he stammered out an answer.
"Y-yes. That's correct."
"Are you trying to intimidate my witness?!"
Faced with the old hag's aggressive tone, Il-mok just shrugged.
"Whether he's a witness or a swindler, won't we figure out the truth once we go and take a look for ourselves?"
"Go? Where do you mean?"
"Where else? The man says he came from Wangchang County, so we go there and find out for ourselves."
Wangchang County was at most a two-hour ride away on horseback.
Hearing Il-mok's suggestion, Abbess Miejue snapped sharply.
"We all know perfectly well that you lot have already muzzled the residents there! Don't try to pull something underhanded on us!"
"We muzzled them, you say. That's funny. It seems the name of our Maitreya Luminous Cult has gotten more frightening than the names of Emei and Qingcheng without anyone noticing."
"You insolent boy, how dare you mock our great Emei Sect?!"
Just as Abbess Miejue erupted with an almost frenzied shout, and someone from the Qingcheng side moved to step forward, a blatant sneer spread across Il-mok's face from behind his mask.
"If that weren't the case, then please explain to me why this poor victim would be too terrified to speak the truth even when the righteous heroes of Emei and Qingcheng are standing right in front of them to protect them?"
Struck by Il-mok's flawless logic, every single nun and Taoist in the crowd fell silent.
They realized that if they attacked him now, they would essentially be publicly confessing that their grand sects were weaker than a single Maitreya Luminous Cult.
While they were all scrambling to figure out what to do, Il-mok turned to look at Hwangbo Yeon.
"Besides, we even have an impartial witness right here to judge things fairly. What is there to be afraid of? If you're confident, then come with us to Wangchang County."
Abbess Miejue realized that refusing here would mean questioning Fist Phoenix's impartiality, so she grimaced and gave her answer.
"Fine. We'll go to Wangchang County. Let's see if you can keep wagging that clever tongue of yours once we're there."
With that mocking retort, Abbess Miejue tucked the so-called witness protectively to her side and headed back among the nuns.
Since Wangchang County was only about two hours away even on foot at a leisurely pace, Il-mok and the group deployed their lightness skills and set off toward it.
While they moved through the air with their lightness skill, Taoist Master Cheongmok sent a voice transmission to Abbess Miejue.
—Do you actually have some sort of plan in mind for when we arrive at Wangchang County?
—Who cares about a plan? All we need is to drive them out. That man seems to be running rampant with the Hwangbo Family backing him, but are you seriously just going to sit back and let him run wild in our own backyard?
—But Abbess, the man you brought along isn't telling the truth...
—Taoist Master Cheongmok. What exactly are you trying to accomplish here? Do you even want to drive them out or not?
Cheongmok fell quiet with a complicated expression, and Abbess Miejue fixed him with a sharp glare as she continued through the transmission.
—If you're going to be like this, you might as well go back to Qingcheng and send someone else. Or just shut your mouth and follow along.
Struck by Abbess Miejue's ultimatum, Cheongmok squeezed his eyes shut in shame and silently chanted a Daoist chant in his mind.
‘May immesurable heavenly merits follow upon me.’
The war against the Blood Cult had left countless scars on the Qingcheng Sect.
Because of that, everyone back home was desperate to reclaim their lost glory, and Taoist Master Cheongmok was no exception.
It was just the method that bothered him.
‘This isn't what I wanted. I’d rather fight those bastards from the Blood Cult than do this.’
He still remembered the day his sect fell into the Blood Cult's vicious trap that caused a mass frenzy among his sect’s disciples.
Back when he had been raging through their ranks in revenge for that day, at least he hadn't had to agonize over anything like his morality.
Back then, the lines between friend and foe, good and evil, were crystal clear.
But that was simply not the case right now.
If he raised his voice against this approach, Qingcheng would inevitably split into two factions. He was afraid of that blurring of lines again, afraid of another fratricide among Qingcheng's own disciples, just like that tragic day. And so Taoist Master Cheongmok kept his objections to himself and said nothing.
***
After more than an hour of travelling by lightness skills, they arrived in Wangchang County.
Once there, Il-mok had people go around to gather the residents of Wangchang County.
"This man here has something he'd like to say, and that's why we've gathered you all!"
Il-mok called out to the crowd, pointing to the so-called witness.
"Since my Maitreya Luminous Cult is standing right here alongside the highly prestigious Emei and Qingcheng Sects, you have absolutely nothing to fear! So please listen to what this man has to say and give us the honest truth!"
The moment he finished, every resident's gaze snapped to the man at once.
For some reason, unlike back in Guangyuan County, the man had his head bowed low, his eyes darting around nervously as he opened his mouth.
"O-originally, this Wangchang County had the E-Eight Virtues Gate, an Orthodox Faction’s sect..."
As the man's account continued, sneers and curses started breaking out across the crowd.
"The fuck is this retard talking about?”
"The Eight Virtues Gate was righteous? Righteous your motherfucking ass! They talked a big game, but all they ever did was show up and squeeze money out of our folks!”
Then, a middle-aged man suddenly gasped and pointed at the man with wide eyes.
"Hold on, I know this rat! This bitchless son of a bitch was one of the Eight Virtues Gate’s thugs! My ribs still ache from where that bastard hit me!!"
Triggered by the middle-aged man's shout, the rest of the villagers suddenly recognized the scammer's face as well, and the entire plaza erupted into a furious riot.
The scammer, who had just been mumbling his script about the Maitreya Luminous Cult's 'evil deeds' in a tiny, trembling voice, turned white as a sheet and desperately looked to Abbess Miejue to save him.
"Silence!!"
Abbess Miejue suddenly unleashed a Qi-infused roar and blasted it toward the residents.
"You fools! You've clearly been bewitched by demons!! How could you turn your backs on those who protected you and bow to the threats of such crooked heretics?!"
"Today, I will destroy these heretics without fail, and drive the demons from your corrupted minds...!"
She spent a solid minute screaming her lungs out when Abbess Miejue belatedly realized something was wrong.
The villagers, who had just been screaming and trembling in terror at her roar, were suddenly reacting in a completely bizarre way.
Their faces had instantly smoothed over into peace, and they were all staring blankly past her with looks of religious awe.
Abbess Miejue followed their gaze and turned her head, only to find herself staring dead at the masked man.
"How dare you."
The masked man slowly marched toward her while radiating an immense pressure that spread outward in every direction.
"Threatening my followers."
When he stopped right before her face.
SLAM.
"Right in front of my face."
Crushed by the pressure bearing down on her, Abbess Miejue found herself on both knees before she even realized it.