Chapter 196
Chapter 196. If This is Corruption, Then I Suppose It is Corruption
Shoooook.
Tap, ta-tap. Tap.
Deep within a certain mountain.
Those with an unusual aura had just arrived there.
Among them, a man with fierce eyes and twin swords at his waist opened his mouth.
“Did you hear? They say the Heavenly Demon has appeared.”
“Hah. It drives me crazy. We’re already busy enough dealing with those bastards, and now there’s the Heavenly Demon.”
Following the man boasting a massive build and muscles, a woman with an eyepatch over one eye spoke up.
“He must be strong, right?”
“Of course he is.”
“I want to fight him once. I wonder if he’s around the level of the Twelve Venerables.”
“If he’s only at that level, it would be a disappointment.”
The woman with the eyepatch shrugged.
“True. Yeah. You’re right. Even if they are the Twelve Venerables, aside from one or two like the Fist Emperor or the Black Emperor, the rest are mostly just bubbles. One of them already lost to one of us, anyway.”
“They still think they’re the best. They don’t even know what kind of strong people are out there in the world, or how many. Idiots.”
“Still, the Heavenly Demon will be different. The captain said so. He was the only existence comparable to The Master.”
“That only applies to the Founding Heavenly Demon.”
“Well, even so, he’s no match for us. Our Martial Arts possess the power to overwhelm Demonic Force.”
Confident smiles formed on the faces of those conversing.
“Anyway, Murim will be in an uproar because of the Heavenly Demon.”
“And the place with the biggest fire under their feet would be the Murim Alliance. They must be incredibly busy right about now.”
“I don’t know if those fools will even do it right. From what I hear, there’s an old snake coiled up there causing a lot of problems.”
“Hmph. We just need to do our job well.”
“You’re right. By the way, is this the place?”
“Looks like it. The rotten stench of that seed is already churning. Khaak! Ptooey!”
“Now. Shall we go? It is time to eradicate the demons.”
Soon, they disappeared into a large cave.
Just who were these people?
Before Jegal Mun went to Jang Cheong’s room, he first stopped by the Alliance Leader’s Hall.
“Alliance Leader.”
“Speak.”
“Have you given up on everything?”
“Hmm? Given up? What kind of nonsense is that?”
Song Il-do looked at Jegal Mun, who had suddenly come to see him, and smiled playfully.
But Jegal Mun continued speaking with an incredibly serious face.
He clearly had a different atmosphere about him than usual.
“Where did all those dreams you told me about go?”
At those words, Song Il-do’s face stiffened slightly.
Meanwhile, Jegal Mun continued his story.
“Do you remember that day, the day you came to find me yourself, Alliance Leader? You asked if I had any intention of trying to change the world. At that time, I…”
“You said the world does not change so easily.”
“Yes. But back then, you smiled and said we should at least try clashing against it, and told me to trust you since you were the Alliance Leader after all.”
“…I did.”
“I trusted that smile and those eyes back then, which is why I left my family and came here.”
And the position he took on was Martial Alliance Chief Strategist.
That position, which seemed incredible in the eyes of the world, was actually an incredibly painful one for Jegal Mun.
Because it was a position where he could do nothing.
Honestly, even this conversation felt overdue.
Jegal Mun’s heart toward Song Il-do had been filled with disappointment for a long time.
Looking at such a Jegal Mun, Song Il-do gave a deeply bitter smile.
“Right. How could I not know? I know very well, I know.”
“Then why…”
Jegal Mun could not bring himself to finish the sentence, asking why he had ended up like this.
When he first took office as the Murim Alliance Leader, he was highly motivated.
But before even a year had passed, he lost all his motivation.
And he had been living as nothing more than an indecisive Alliance Leader up until now.
Even so, Jegal Mun had wanted to trust him until the end.
However, even that little remaining trust has been completely disappearing recently.
That was why he had come here like this.
He decided to ask the question he had been holding back all this time.
“Are you… wanting to ask why I ended up like this? Haha. It’s because I realized my limits. Honestly, I thought that if I became the Alliance Leader, I would be able to run the Murim Alliance as I pleased. But that wasn’t the case.”
They merely needed a good-looking figurehead to sit like a puppet in that fabricated position.
“It was the exact opposite of what I thought.”
What soon washed over him was the despair that he lacked the power to change this corrupt system.
“It was a world where I couldn’t do anything.”
The ones moving the Murim Alliance were not he, but the Elders.
And the existence known as Jang Cheong, who reigned above them, was far too great a wall for Song Il-do, who knew nothing of politics.
A massive wall that he couldn’t even begin to guess how to deal with.
“So what else could I do? I realized that my dream was nothing more than childish greed. It was better back when I lived as just a single Martial Artist without having to bear any responsibilities. But I can’t do that anymore. I’ve become unable to live without even this superficial position.”
Even if he lacked the power to achieve the things he had dreamed of, the title of Murim Alliance Leader was a position recognized anywhere in the world.
Thus, he only had the desire to maintain this position no matter what.
An indecisive petty man.
That was Song Il-do’s current state.
“If this is corruption, then I suppose it is corruption. Haha.”
His eyes, which had once shone with the motivation to change the world, had long since lost their light.
At the sight of such Song Il-do, Jegal Mun was left speechless.
His heart felt incredibly suffocated.
Perhaps at any other time, he would have made up his mind to leave this place.
But not now.
He felt a sense of crisis: if even he didn’t pull himself together and take action, something truly terrible might happen.
Soon, Jegal Mun left that spot and hurriedly headed somewhere.
He looked toward the one he considered the culprit behind all the problems facing the Murim Alliance.
And now.
“The Heavenly Demon has appeared.”
“Hmm? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
Jegal Mun’s words, brought up first thing after showing up out of nowhere, made Jang Cheong puzzled.
“I will say it once more. The Heavenly Demon has appeared. It is not a simple rumor, but that existence has truly appeared in this era.”
“Of course I know that.”
“Is that so? I thought perhaps you were unaware of that fact, Chief Elder.”
“What does that mean?”
Jang Cheong furrowed his brow.
But Jegal Mun continued speaking while looking straight at Jang Cheong without a single change in expression.
“I am telling you that the situation in Murim has changed a lot now. Because of the Heavenly Demon, it has become a state of emergency where war could break out at any moment.”
“Thus, it is a situation where we must gather our strength as one and prepare. It is time to gather the Nine Sects One Alliance and the Five Great Families, of course, as well as all other possible forces. Even if we do so, it is unknown whether we will be able to stop them or not.”
Perhaps if the Successor of the Martial God were to appear, it would be a different story.
If not, there was no other way but what Jegal Mun had just said.
The Heavenly Demon and the Demonic Cult where the Heavenly Demon actually existed would possess such terrifying power.
What did it mean to call a single human a Calamity?
It meant nothing different from saying their power had reached the heavens.
Therefore, they had to prepare to stop them with all their might.
No, even that would not be enough.
That was what Jegal Mun was saying.
“So what is your business in telling me this story?”
Jegal Mun already knew all too well that a proper conversation with Jang Cheong would be impossible.
Thus, he had long since abandoned any thought of persuading him.
Because during his time as the Strategist of the Murim Alliance, he had keenly felt and learned that there was no point in sincerely dealing with someone who hid their insidious intentions until the very end.
“I will not beat around the bush. Do not create any more unnecessary problems, including the matter with the Hebei Peng Family. It does not help the Orthodox Martial World unite as one in the slightest.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I am telling you that if you cause such an incident again, I will no longer sit still.”
“And if you don’t sit still?”
Jang Cheong’s atmosphere changed in an instant.
The air in the room became incredibly heavy.
A Killing Intent that made his entire body tingle.
The thought occurred to him that the rumors of Jang Cheong’s power - which he had never once revealed - being on par with the Ten Great Masters might actually be true.
But Jegal Mun didn’t even flinch, as if he had expected as much.
He had clearly come with firm resolve.
Jang Cheong, who had been exuding as much fierce Aura as possible, soon slowly withdrew his Aura.
Then, he changed his expression again and smiled leisurely.
“Listen well, Strategist. Everyone has a different way of dealing with a Calamity. And there seems to be some misunderstanding, but I also intend to put in my own effort and struggle to stop that Calamity somehow. My, you are misunderstanding me far too much.”
“That effort and struggle you speak of sound like you intend to use others as a meat shield.”
“Look here.”
“At the very least, do not interfere.”
“Are you saying that I am interfering?”
“That is correct.”
“On what grounds?”
“Huu.”
In the end, he was making him repeat what he had already said.
The moment he grew tired of it and raised his voice, he would be playing right into that man’s hands.
Therefore, he refused to engage in any more wordplay.
“I know that you have quite a few things going on behind the scenes, Elder.”
No matter how firmly he had braced himself before coming, dealing with Jang Cheong made him feel as though his energy was draining two or three times faster than usual.
Thus, Jegal Mun pulled out the final card he had brought with him.
“How much do you think I know? I believe I can put a scratch, if not a massive dent, in all the honor you have built up until now. Do you truly want that?”
“What?”
In an instant, Jang Cheong’s face contorted at Jegal Mun’s words.
Soon, his face transformed into one overflowing with Killing Intent that Jegal Mun had never seen before.
Honor.
That was what Jang Cheong valued most.
Jegal Mun had just touched Jang Jang Cheong’s Dragon’s Scale.
This bastard truly…
“This is all I have to say. So I only hope that things will not be the same from now on. I will take my leave.”
He was done speaking.
With those final words, Jegal Mun left the room without exchanging any more words.
Killing Intent gleamed in Jang Cheong’s eyes as he watched his retreating back.
A while later.
Jegal Gil, who had returned after catching up with Yeo Un-hwi for the first time in a long while, was in a good mood.
He had felt like he was fighting a suffocating, lonely battle all this time, but after meeting Yeo Un-hwi, that lonely feeling seemed to completely wash away.
Before he knew it, Yeo Un-hwi had become such a significant existence to Jegal Gil.
However,
“Excuse me? What did you just…”
The words Jang Cheong delivered to him, who had just returned, were received.
Hearing those words, Jegal Gil momentarily wore a blank expression.
Then, Jang Cheong spoke once more.
“I said I would have to cut your brother out of the Murim Alliance.”
Soon, Jegal Gil’s eyes began to shake violently.
The situation was rapidly changing in an unexpected direction.