The Mad Dog Inspector of the Martial Alliance

Jang So-gil used up all the Byeokryeoktan he had. After sharing them amicably with Baek Yugyeong and Yang Gwan, the three of them blew up the passages leading from the shrine and the underground cavity as they went, burying them under the ground.

The ground shook. It was not because of an earthquake, the wrath of a spirit, but because the underground was physically collapsing.

Looking at the collapsing buildings and the spreading fire, his mad laughter did not stop.

"Explosion is an art. Hehehe."

Jang So-gil muttered as if he were genuinely happy, looking at the burning Maoshan. His eyeballs glistened with madness.

Baek Yugyeong, who was staring blankly at Jang So-gil, turned his body to Yang Gwan. He brought his index finger to his temple and drew a circle.

"The White Azure Divine Sword has the effect of calming one's temper and making one cool-headed. Is that why he's only at that level?"

"...I think so."

"I see."

The lords of the North Sea Ice Palace were hot-tempered from generation to generation. What was there to hide? Just as Baek Yugyeong's eyes would turn when he fought, they were all people whose blood would easily rush to their heads.

The blacksmith Gu Ye-ja had made the White Azure Divine Sword to cool the heads of such people. Thanks to the effect of the White Azure Divine Sword, the Ice Palace could have a more cool-headed monarch.

"If it weren't for that, he would have been a real troublemaker."

If it weren't for the White Azure Divine Sword, what kind of fellow would he have been?

Anyway, he knew one thing. Since he was a fellow whose personality changed when he held a bomb, it would be for the good of the world not to put it in his hands.

But it was rather for that reason that the Explosion Demon had given the Byeokryeoktan to that fellow. Baek Yugyeong shivered.

"But that fellow. Was he the direct disciple of the Alliance Leader?"

"He's definitely not a direct disciple, it's nothing more than him having looked after his martial arts for a few days."

"A few days? A few days, you say?"

"That's right. Is there a problem?"

"No..."

A strong qi was a kind of aggregation of the martial arts one had learned. So Baek Yugyeong's strong qi, who had become a master with the Soul-Stealing Ice Art, had a cold qi.

But Jang So-gil's strong qi was strange. At the end of the cold qi, lightning was formed.

That was definitely the lightning of the Thunder and Lightning Sword Emperor that his father had talked about before he died.

'There's no way lightning would form in a strong qi just by learning for a few days. Is he hiding it from this fellow too?'

At that time, the Byeokryeoktan began its second explosion. Now, even the ground in this direction was shaking several times.

Baek Yugyeong could not continue his thoughts any longer. Because he could see people with red eyes flocking towards the party from a distance.

The party had been attacked by people, not jiangshi, on their way to the inn. They had barked at the moon like mad dogs and had rushed to bite the three of them.

Jang So-gil and Baek Yugyeong had judged that these people had been addicted to drugs for a long time, and that in the process, suggestion and brainwashing had taken place, and they had already deviated from the path of humans. In an instant, the classification of the people of Maoshan had changed from common people waiting for rescue to the soldiers of the Maoshan Sect.

Of course, they were not at a level to be an enemy of the party. The people who had been immediately subdued were scattered randomly on the floor near the inn, twitching.

Jang So-gil, who had regained his composure, calmly came to a conclusion.

"Anyway, we've achieved our initial goal. Let's hurry and get out of Maoshan."

He had figured out what was happening in Maoshan. The rest was now the work of the Martial Alliance.

He had to deliver this news to Luoyang as soon as possible and have them form a unit to execute the Maoshan Sect.

"But is what you've confirmed enough? What about the evidence?"

"It would be better to have evidence to handle it more clearly. But this is enough."

The jiangshi that Yang Gwan had dealt with had turned to ashes. Although he had collected a few of the finely chopped pieces of flesh of the jiangshi that Jang So-gil and Baek Yugyeong had dealt with, it was a bit of an ambiguous item to be used as evidence.

There was no time to look for other evidence, nor was there a need to.

"My eyes are the eyes of the Martial Alliance Leader. If I see it as blue, it's blue, and if I see it as red, it's red."

"That's nice."

Baek Yugyeong grinned. Although he was a really annoying fellow, he really liked the part where he handled things so hot-headedly and quickly.

"This explosion will probably delay that unknown ritual to some extent. It's not realistic to directly intervene and stop them, or to fight them head-on and win."

Yang Gwan's expression, who was listening to Jang So-gil's words, darkened.

Yang Gwan also knew that his words were realistically right. Even if the party went to the place of the ritual, they would not be able to surely stop the fiends.

It was just that there was nothing he could do, always. He just suppressed his boiling heart with a sense of helplessness and quietly recited 'Amitabha' in his mouth.

Jang So-gil, looking at such a Yang Gwan, let out a low sigh.

"Let's leave quickly before the wildfire spreads. The nearest post station will probably take about three hours from here. After sending a carrier pigeon there, let's come back and rescue the people."

"...Yes! Understood!"

Yang Gwan's face brightened.

Baek Yugyeong, watching him get on Yanghwangbijeon, smiled mischievously.

"You're really soft on your subordinate. In the North Sea, you'd only be called a weak monarch for that."

"You must be happy to be strong with your subordinate, you bastard. But you, don't you have a horse?"

"My horse is tied up outside."

"Alright. Then let's go."

Baek Yugyeong started running with the momentum to catch up with Yang Gwan's horse, which was leading the way.

Jang So-gil, who was on Cheongwol, suddenly looked back. The smoke from the wildfire that had started from the shrine and the night fog that still had not disappeared had a gloomy aura.

To Jang So-gil, who had experienced the hell of the world called the 'Heavenly Net', it was not a very scary scene.

"What is it?"

For a moment, a chill that made his spine stand on end ran through him.

Did I catch a cold?

"Hah, as if a transcendent master would catch a cold."

It felt as if something evil and scary was looking at him.

It seemed his mind and body were weak from seeing too many gruesome things.

Jang So-gil scratched Cheongwol's mane and pulled the reins.

* * *

Hatred is passed down through generations.

Any property will decrease and the power will decline if it is passed down through generations, but hatred is different.

Hatred grows stronger as the generations pass.

The pain that is continuously engraved. The right to the light that the victor enjoys, the longing for freedom, nurtures the hatred.

The life of the loser is like that of a mole under the ground, who cannot even enjoy the freedom to bask in the light.

The sect leader of the Maoshan Sect, Myeongjinja, had been ashamed of the large underground cavity where the spirits and souls of his ancestors were enshrined.

Because they had been defeated, they had no choice but to live in hiding underground. Because they had been defeated, they had no choice but to abandon their names. Because they had been defeated, they were even deprived of the freedom to believe what they wanted to believe.

The large underground cavity was a place that was like a symbol of that lack of freedom.

Although he had been born here and had grown up here, Myeongjinja hated this place.

But when the Byeokryeoktan exploded in the jiangshi warehouse above the large cavity, and the ceiling, passages, and the entrance to the shrine all began to collapse, he finally realized.

Myeongjinja had liked this place as much as he had thought he had hated it.

As the precious thing that was left was trampled on, his hatred grew even stronger.

Myeongjinja, with a cracking voice, shouted.

"Listen, my brothers."

Numerous people approached. It was a truly difficult movement, as there were people with cracked heads from falling rocks, people with injured knees, and people with sprained backs.

But they were better off. Because they were not dead.

Myeongjinja, ignoring the still-heard explosions, ruptures, and the falling dust and dirt, said.

"The ritual has not failed. But to continue the ritual, more sacrifices are needed. Those who do not have much time left to live, voluntarily prostrate yourselves before him."

There was no rebuttal to the absurd words. Those who had met his gaze slowly moved their feet.

The place they were heading to was a corpse lying on a red altar.

Next to it stood a man with his mouth and nose covered with a cloth, and various blood-stained tools were lined up.

Tweezers for picking up small things, very sharp scissors, a thread and needle so thin that they were invisible.

A person with a cracked head and blood dripping down gathered his hands in front of the altar. The man who was standing swung a sharp blade and cut off his head.

The severed head fell on the stomach of the corpse. Then a red ripple occurred, and the stomach of the corpse split open like a mouth with a 'jjeok-'.

That mouth, like a hungry ghost, chewed and swallowed the human head.

The man who had swung the blade said, without emotion.

"Next."

People died in a line.

There was a woman who spoke to Myeongjinja, who was watching that scene.

"Father, what should we do now?"

A master who had received the nickname 'Red Phoenix' at the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly because of her characteristic bright red hair and lips, and the 'Hot Yang Art' that she had learned to the extreme. It was Chae-yun.

Her voice was filled with blame. Because the cause of this disaster was all Myeongjinja's wrong judgment.

To have rashly judged that the inspector would die while fighting the Four Black Alliance, and to have neglected to attempt an assassination or to destroy the evidence was the first mistake.

Although it was obvious that the inspector would come to investigate the Maoshan Sect, not trying to stop him, and believing that the ritual, which was in its final stages, would be completed first, and focusing only on gathering the materials was the second mistake.

Even after knowing that the inspector had arrived in Maoshan, thinking that it would be enough to just protect the place of the ritual, and gathering all the masters here and sending out only the jiangshi was the third mistake.

Each and every mistake was fatal.

Myeongjinja read the anger and blame in her voice. So he naturally made an excuse.

"His resurrection has only been delayed a little. It has not failed. It will be possible in about a fortnight."

"A fortnight? You said a fortnight just now. Do you really think the Thunder and Lightning Sword Emperor and the Martial Alliance will not move for a fortnight? Will that hateful Black Qilin stay still?"

"Don't worry. If we kill the inspector now, it's a time we can earn enough."

"How are you going to kill the inspector now?"

They would have already left Maoshan. Four hours, no, three hours was more than enough to arrive at the post station. If even one carrier pigeon headed for Luoyang, that would be the end of it.

At Chae-yun's rebuke, the corner of Myeongjinja's mouth twisted.

"Just now, I released the 'Blood Jiangshi'."

* * *

The person who felt the anomaly first was Baek Yugyeong. Although he was at the very back because the horse he was riding was the worst, it was because he was a hunter.

A hunter knows the unpleasant feeling of the moment he is being chased by his prey. Baek Yugyeong, stroking his ticklish neck, looked back. Between the fog, two owls flew up into the sky with a 'pudeudeuk'.

Was it the presence of a night owl? No. That kind of thing was not a threat to him.

This feeling was the feeling of being chased by a polar bear in his childhood, the feeling of being surrounded by the martial artists of the Martial Alliance in the Demonic Cult War.

Baek Yugyeong, without realizing it, shouted urgently.

"There's something!"

"What is it?"

"I'm saying it's something because I don't know what it is!"

Although it was a foolish word, for a moment, Jang So-gil and Yang Gwan got goosebumps.

A transcendent master. And a person who was more sensitive than anyone here said he didn't know what it was.

Although no presence was felt, what on earth had he felt?

"There's no presence. Isn't it a jiangshi?"

"How can a jiangshi be faster than a horse!?"

"Then what is it?!"

"How many times do I have to say I don't know, you fool!"

Jang So-gil, ignoring the two noisy fellows, looked back.

He had been narrowing his eyes to get used to the darkness for a long time. In a moment when the faint moonlight shone, his outstanding eyesight caught something moving.

It was a jiangshi. A jiangshi that was running, spraying blood from its four limbs, as if it had been soaked in blood.

If he were to give a name to that jiangshi, a hundred out of a hundred would give it the same name.

"B-blood jiangshi?"

A legendary unorthodox religious group.

The symbol of the Asura Blood Cult, the Blood Jiangshi.

(End of Chapter)