Chapter 173 : Between Truth and Lies
Chapter 173: Between Truth and Lies
For the Twenty-Seven Ghosts, quietly capturing even one martial artist of the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold who was spreading the Heavenly Net was nothing at all.
Thus, the martial artist of the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold captured by Evil Slaughter Ghost was handed over to Lee Tae.
One of Lee Tae’s specialties was ferreting out information. That included not only identifying people who might possess information, but also extracting it through torture.
Lee Tae’s torture techniques were so vicious that even the interrogation specialists of the Bright Cult—who were infamous for their cruelty—would shake their heads in disbelief.
Well, it made sense. He had mastered torture techniques meant to force open the mouths of the Eastern Lands people, who were said to be unmatched in their stubbornness.
Perhaps because of that, in less than half a Gak after falling into Lee Tae’s hands, the martial artist of the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold confessed everything he was asked—even matters concerning eighteen generations of his ancestors.
Unlike Evil Slaughter Ghost, who trusted Lee Tae infinitely, Iron Flower Ghost could not understand Lee Tae’s actions.
They should have been attempting a swift breakthrough before the Heavenly Net tightened further, yet Lee Tae was wasting time gathering information.
Even so, Iron Flower Ghost endured and watched everything in silence.
That was because Lee Tae had been granted permission to attend training at the Vice Cult Leader’s Pavilion—something even the Twenty-Seven Ghosts had not been allowed to do.
While Iron Flower Ghost watched, Lee Tae slipped between the layers of the Heavenly Net.
What Lee Tae did next was enough to shock Iron Flower Ghost, who had been observing while hiding his presence.
Lee Tae casually approached the martial artists of the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold who were spreading the Heavenly Net.
He had neither changed clothes nor disguised himself.
Iron Flower Ghost had been so shocked that at first, failing to find any explanation, he even thought Lee Tae had fallen into despair and was attempting suicide.
But as some time passed, Iron Flower Ghost could not help tilting his head in confusion.
Lee Tae was laughing and chatting freely with the martial artists of the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold who were maintaining the Heavenly Net, and eventually even moving around while exchanging greetings with them.
Not a single martial artist of the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold suspected or showed hostility toward Lee Tae.
As Iron Flower Ghost watched in bewilderment, Evil Slaughter Ghost’s mental voice transmission reached him.
—You don’t understand it, do you?
—And you do?
—I wouldn’t say I understand it, but I’ve seen it several times, so I just accept it.
—Several times?
—You know I once disguised myself as a vagabond to capture Mang On-Gwi after he defected and fled.
—Well… yes.
—I saw it several times back then.
At Evil Slaughter Ghost’s words, Iron Flower Ghost could not hide his surprise.
—He did that even to those rough, suspicious vagabonds?
—This is nothing. I once saw Lee Tae getting drunk, throwing his arm around enemy vagabonds, and singing with them.
—How is that even possible?
Seeing Iron Flower Ghost’s incredulous expression, Evil Slaughter Ghost explained what he knew.
—It may look like he’s moving around casually, but he only deals with weaklings.
—Only weaklings?
—Yes. Experts usually know the other experts they operate with. But the weak ones don’t. It’s impossible for them to remember every expert from other combat groups.
—Even so, the clothes are different…
—That’s another reason he only deals with weaklings. Many decent experts wander around in casual clothing rather than their official uniforms.
Iron Flower Ghost could not refute that.
Even within the Bright Cult—where the strong made the rules—it was not uncommon.
One could say wearing whatever clothes they wished instead of official attire was a way of displaying superiority.
Iron Flower Ghost himself had done the same before, and even the highest ranks usually overlooked it.
To Iron Flower Ghost, who knew such things well, Evil Slaughter Ghost’s mental voice continued.
—He approaches them casually in those free clothes and starts talking down to them right away. And the things he says are things you could never know unless you were on the same side, so they fall for it completely.
—How does he know things only someone on their side would know?
At Iron Flower Ghost’s question, Evil Slaughter Ghost gestured with his eyes toward the small cave where Lee Tae had tortured the captured martial artist of the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold.
Only then did Iron Flower Ghost understand the source of the information.
—That’s all well and good, but what does that have to do with our escape?
—During that process, Lee Tae spreads false information. Lies skillfully combined with truth can deceive even the original source of the information.
—Spreading false information won’t break a siege.
—It will.
—What?
—Those false pieces of information gather and gather until they force the encirclement to change its position.
Even after Evil Slaughter Ghost’s explanation, Iron Flower Ghost still looked unconvinced.
Meanwhile, Lee Tae continued moving busily.
Soon, rumors began spreading among the martial artists of the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold wherever Lee Tae had passed.
The targets had already escaped and moved toward the neighboring mountain.
Tracks had even been found, but the ones who discovered them had moved alone to monopolize the merit.
Elsewhere Lee Tae passed, rumors spread that a spy was spreading ridiculous nonsense, so no one should believe anything they heard.
In another area Lee Tae had moved through without rest, some were venting their anger, claiming that those seeking to monopolize the merit were falsely accusing others of being spies just to keep everyone trapped there.
All those rumors had one thing in common.
Everyone firmly believed the story they had heard.
The rumors replicated themselves as they spread, gaining more and more embellishment until they eventually evolved into eyewitness accounts claiming someone had seen certain people secretly leaving the formation to head toward the neighboring mountain.
As you might imagine, everyone desires merit.
Especially if the one attempting to claim it alone is a rival—then one’s heart grows unbearably impatient.
And if a new superior has just arrived, someone who does not know the past and will judge only by visible results from now on, then one absolutely cannot remain still.
Once people like that begin appearing, one after another, the spread is instantaneous.
Because suddenly there are many witnesses who claim to have seen people moving.
When such eyewitness accounts multiply like weeds, some even begin bringing their subordinates along rather than moving alone, hoping to snatch superiority from those who moved first.
Disobeying orders and acting independently was frightening, but if they captured the targets, everything would be resolved.
And everyone doing such things believed the same thing.
That they—or their group—would definitely be the ones to capture them.
When such things spread, even the highest ranks waver.
What if a subordinate discovered something they had overlooked and solved the matter through bold, preemptive action?
They knew too well how they themselves would be evaluated for standing idly by.
Competition only grows fiercer the higher one climbs. The higher the position, the fewer seats there are.
And once one falls behind in that competition, recovery is almost impossible.
Those who understood that better than anyone could not simply sit and do nothing.
If just one person succumbed to that anxiety and moved first, the rest was easy.
The psychological pressure between the one who takes the first step and those who follow behind is incomparably different.
Perhaps because of that, shortly after the first elder gathered his subordinates and moved toward the neighboring mountain, the entire Heavenly Net shifted with him.
Of course, since there had been no order from the Stronghold Lord, some still hesitated and remained behind.
But they were far too few to maintain the encirclement.
That such a thing had happened in only a single day left Iron Flower Ghost staring in disbelief even as he witnessed it with his own eyes.
To Iron Flower Ghost, Lee Tae said,
“Let’s go. If it doesn’t look right, we’ll come back. It won’t take very long to find out.”
After all, though they had been swept along for a moment, not everyone was a fool.
Iron Flower Ghost nodded and ran after Lee Tae and Evil Slaughter Ghost.
The encirclement of the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold left behind on Mount Gil was far too sloppy to stop them.
The Namgung Clan was thrown into chaos.
The Imperial King Sword Duke, who had left to aid the Bright Light Sect, had returned covered in blood.
He was carried on a stretcher made by the surviving martial artists of the Grand Flame Sword Unit—only ten out of ten thousand still alive.
Worse still, the right arm of the unconscious Imperial King Sword Duke was gone.
Upon hearing the survivors’ report that he had fallen victim to the new Four Calamity Emperor, the Clan Head flew into a rage and rushed out with the Imperial King Invincible Sword Unit and the Vast Firmament Infinite Unit.
The Elder Council’s opinion—that they should investigate their opponent more carefully before acting—was dismissed as cowardly fear.
Even opposition arose within the Elder Council itself, preventing anyone from stopping the Clan Head.
A day after some elders had joined the Clan Head and departed, shocking news reached the Namgung Clan.
In the battle against the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold on the banks of the Hu River along the border between Anhui and Jiangxi, both the Imperial King Invincible Sword Unit and the Vast Firmament Infinite Unit had been annihilated.
That was not all.
The Clan Head and several surviving elders had been captured.
And all of it had been accomplished by a single individual—the new Four Calamity Emperor.
This was not a misunderstanding or a lie.
The report came from one of the captured elders who had been released.
Unable to endure the humiliation of being sent back merely to deliver the message, the elder begged that the Clan Head and the others be rescued—then struck his own Heavenly Spirit Cap and committed suicide.
The Clan Head had been captured.
The Deputy Clan Head had lost his right arm—the lifeblood of a swordsman—and lay unconscious.
From the perspective of the Namgung Clan’s Elder Council, a rescue operation had to be launched immediately.
But the situation was dire.
The Clan Head had been captured, the Deputy Clan Head incapacitated, and their two strongest military forces had been completely destroyed.
Under such circumstances, there was nothing more the Namgung Clan could do on their own.
In the end, the Namgung Clan had no choice but to send an urgent message to the Martial Alliance requesting aid.
They had to move the Martial Alliance.
And their strongest master, the Azure Dragon Sword King, was staying there as well.
Within the Martial Alliance, the Beggars’ Sect maintained the stance of an observer.
Though they had one foot inside, they were not fully a sect belonging to the Martial Alliance.
Because the Beggars’ Sect, which championed freedom and consultation, could not agree with all the actions of the Martial Alliance.
It was a peculiar arrangement both sides had no choice but to accept—the Beggars’ Sect could not survive alone, and the Martial Alliance needed the Beggars’ Sect’s information network.
The news of the Namgung Clan brought by the Beggars’ Sect was enough to plunge the many sects of the Martial Alliance into shock.
But the real problem came after that shock.
If Namgung had suffered such losses, they would surely request aid.
In the past, even before Namgung requested help, the Martial Alliance would have circulated a joint petition and called for the punishment of the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold.
But not now.
With the Bright Cult’s power overwhelming the Orthodox Faction, they could not afford to lose the masters they had painstakingly cultivated in a battle with the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold.
What if the new Four Calamity Emperor devoured one of their Manifestation Realm or Transcendent Realm masters?
There was absolutely no way to undo that.
The Martial Alliance—and each sect within it—understood that clearly.
For now, the interests of each sect had to come first.
For that reason, the Martial Alliance Elder Council convened by a Namgung Clan elder after receiving the message from the Main Family sat in deep silence.
Only the voice of the Namgung elder rang loudly, furious and insisting on unified action by the Martial Alliance against the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold.
The elders of the other sects said nothing.
Even the Namgung elder was not a fool; he sensed the atmosphere.
“So you intend to ignore the crisis of the Namgung Clan?”
At his cold question, the elder representing Shaolin spoke cautiously.
“We are not saying we will ignore it. We are saying we cannot make a decision. At present, the Martial Alliance has neither a Strategist nor an Alliance Leader.”
In other words, there was no one with the authority to decide.
Hearing this, the Namgung elder spoke urgently.
“Then we should hasten to appoint a Strategist and Alliance Leader! If Shaolin and Mount Hua would yield, our Namgung Clan could take the position of Alliance Leader—”
“How could such a major decision of the Martial Alliance be made so easily? Each sect must receive instructions from its headquarters.”
“Are you truly planning to live while turning a blind eye to Namgung’s crisis?!”
No one answered the Namgung elder’s anguished shout.
After hearing of the atmosphere within the council, the Azure Dragon Sword King—who had been temporarily summoned to the Martial Alliance for the matter of selecting a new Alliance Leader—left without another word.
He intended to return to his clan and attempt a rescue, even if it meant leading only the Azure Wind Sword Unit.
The Unyeon Dharma King and the Heavenly Flower Sword King, who had also been summoned for the same reason, simply watched him depart with heavy gazes.
They had received a warning.
If they moved again without permission from their sects, not only they but even their disciples would be expelled without question.