Chapter 177
“…The Black Emperor is at the Peng Family?”
A room in the Murim Alliance.
Jang Cheong’s hand, which had been watering a carefully cultivated orchid, came to a sudden halt.
Then, resuming his task, he asked.
“Continue.”
The subordinate immediately continued his report.
“Yes. It seems the Black Emperor has developed quite a favorable impression of the Peng Family due to the matter with the Extreme Evil Laughing Demon. That is why he invited the White Wolf Unit to the Demonic Alliance, and upon hearing the news that the Demonic Cult had attacked the Peng Family in the meantime, he appears to have visited the Peng Family, albeit belatedly.”
Jang Cheong nodded.
A brief silence followed.
For a moment, only the sound of watering the orchid was heard a couple of times.
Then, Jang Cheong spoke again.
“…I heard they successfully fended off the Demonic Cult’s attack?”
“That is correct. Somehow, they knew beforehand, and all the Five Great Families gathered in time to fight them off.”
It was a story that had already thrown the entire Murim into an uproar.
Jang Cheong had also been quite surprised by the news.
He had been certain they wouldn’t be able to stop it. Just what exactly had happened?
It was surprising enough that the Five Great Families had gathered at the right time, but to think that even with all the Five Great Families joining forces, they had driven out the Demonic Cult was even more surprising.
The combat power of the Demonic Cult he had heard about at the time far exceeded that level.
And yet they had stopped them. Without any major casualties, at that.
On the contrary, the Demonic Cult had reportedly suffered near-annihilation.
There were many aspects of the news that he simply could not understand.
And on top of that, there was the Black Emperor’s visit.
“Hmm. The Peng Family.”
Soon, Jang Cheong recalled a certain face.
A man who looked like a ferocious beast, yet whose eyes always shone brightly.
It was none other than the Family Head of the Peng Family, Peng Mugang.
He was a truly displeasing man.
Jang Cheong hated him immensely.
Seeing that always confident and self-assured face, and his acting as if he didn’t have a single dark secret, always made him uncomfortable.
No, come to think of it, all the Family Heads of the Five Great Families were like that.
Sword Emperor Namgung Hwan, Gale Divine Fist Hwangbo Gyun, Poison Rain Tang Jinwoo, and even Heavenly Brain Jegal Sung.
Furthermore, they were uncooperative figures who always looked upon the Murim Alliance with disapproval.
Tssss.
Under the Killing Intent exuded by Jang Cheong, the orchid he was watering rapidly withered and soon blackened.
At that sight, the subordinate’s eyes widened, and he bowed his head even deeper.
“The Nine Great Sects alone are enough to give me a headache, tsk.”
Recently, the relationship between the Murim Alliance and the Nine Great Sects had been quite poor.
It was understandable.
Originally, the Murim Alliance was an organization founded under the name of the Orthodox Alliance, centered around the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families.
However, over a long period, the name of the Orthodox Alliance changed to the Murim Alliance, and the influence of the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families within it drastically diminished.
All of this had happened as Jang Cheong rose to the position of Chief Elder and seized real power within the Alliance.
Even for the Alliance Leader position, it had been a long time since someone from the Nine Great Sects or the Five Great Families was chosen.
That, too, was all due to Jang Cheong pulling strings from above.
Because he couldn’t allow any entity or faction that could oppose him to emerge within the Murim Alliance.
The prestige of the Murim Alliance, which had begun to gradually change due to his greed, was hitting rock bottom.
It was no longer the same as it was in the days when it held absolute prestige.
Because of that, the Nine Great Sects had also practically washed their hands of the Alliance’s affairs.
In reality, the current Murim Alliance was nothing more than an empty throne that had crumbled and been abandoned by everyone.
However, Jang Cheong did not acknowledge that fact.
He believed it. He believed that the Murim Alliance would forever be the center of the Orthodox Martial World, and that he would play the king within it until the day he died.
But recently, there was a place that had started to particularly grate on his nerves.
Namely, the Peng Family.
The Peng Family was always at the center of every conversation in the Central Plains Murim lately.
He was extremely displeased by that fact.
“I do not like it. Very much so.”
The center of the Orthodox Martial World must always be the Murim Alliance. Only then could it hold and sway more things in its grasp.
“I suppose I cannot just leave things as they are.”
It would have been nice if they had just quietly disappeared at the hands of the Demonic Cult.
Soon, a cold smile spread across Jang Cheong’s lips as he made up his mind about something.
“To think a place like this existed.”
Having climbed a high mountain peak near the Peng Family, Black Emperor Dokgo Yeong clicked his tongue in admiration as he took in the breathtaking view below. Yeo Un-hwi, who had guided him here, offered a grin.
“It’s a place I frequent.”
“You’re quite the romantic, using a place with such beautiful scenery as a personal training ground.”
“Does it look that way?”
Yeo Un-hwi laughed awkwardly.
Even to him, the scenery from this mountain peak was spectacular.
In truth, it was a place he had chosen to avoid people’s gazes.
But as he spent time here, he started to like it more and more, and now it has become a place he visits whenever he has free time.
“Thank you for allowing this.”
“Not at all.”
Dokgo Yeong, who had been deep in thought for a while, had suddenly asked Yeo Un-hwi for a spar.
Because it was so sudden, he had considered declining.
However, because the opponent was none other than Dokgo Yeong, he accepted the request.
He was a man who truly deserved respect.
Dokgo Yeong was such an outstanding martial artist and human being that one would wonder if there was anyone else like him in the entire Murim, encompassing the Orthodox, Demonic, and Heretic Factions.
At the very least, he was beyond comparison to those rotten scumbags who wore the mask of the Orthodox Faction while plotting all sorts of trickery behind the scenes.
Was this evaluation of Dokgo Yeong too excessive?
No, not at all.
Yeo Un-hwi hated 'evil' more than anyone else.
For such a Yeo Un-hwi to completely take off his tinted glasses regarding the Unorthodox Faction, his evaluation of Dokgo Yeong was lacking, if anything, but certainly not excessive.
Shring.
Dokgo Yeong soon drew his Divine Weapon, Black Killer.
“Now. Shall we begin?”
At the same time,
RUMBLE.
His Aura completely changed.
As if he had become one with Black Killer, Dokgo Yeong mercilessly exuded a sharp and ferocious momentum, as if he himself were a giant sword.
As expected.
Yeo Un-hwi’s eyes widened slightly.
It was an Energy far more overwhelming than that of the Demonic Cult’s Cult Leader, Heaven-Shattering Demonic Emperor Gwak Cheon-hu, whom he had faced not long ago.
He felt like he could understand why many placed the Black Emperor in the top position even among the Twelve Venerables.
In contrast, the Heaven-Shattering Demonic Emperor felt like he hadn’t lived up to his name.
Why was that? He, too, was a figure evaluated as a powerhouse among the Twelve Venerables alongside the Black Emperor, yet Yeo Un-hwi hadn’t received much of an impression from Gwak Cheon-hu at the time.
Perhaps he hadn’t been able to display his full strength when he fought Yeo Un-hwi.
Even so, it wasn’t like he could fight him again now that he was already dead.
In truth, even if it were possible, it would be meaningless.
Because in the end, the result would be the same.
“How long do you plan on standing there?”
At Dokgo Yeong’s spirited words, Yeo Un-hwi chuckled.
“You don’t have to rush me, I was just about to start.”
Soon, Yeo Un-hwi also drew his sword, Wolya.
Vwoom.
Wolya’s beautiful blade hummed low.
“Hoh. That’s a sword I haven’t seen before.”
As far as Dokgo Yeong remembered, it was a sword he definitely didn’t have when he left the Demonic Alliance.
And it wasn’t just an ordinary one, but a remarkably outstanding masterpiece even at a glance.
Because Dokgo Yeong already possessed a Divine Weapon called Black Killer, he noticed that fact faster than anyone else.
“Yes. It’s a sword I happened to get my hands on recently.”
“How does one just 'happen' to obtain such a masterpiece? Tell me too. I’m truly curious.”
“Aren’t you being too greedy when you already have Black Killer?”
He couldn’t exactly tell Dokgo Yeong right now that he had somehow become the Heavenly Demon and, thanks to that, obtained Wolya, the sword used by past Heavenly Demons.
Because that matter was still a secret, he hadn’t told anyone outside his family, with the exception of Jin So-baek.
Of course, there were no eternal secrets, and the whole world might find out someday, but he had no intention of stepping forward and blabbing about it himself.
At Yeo Un-hwi’s words, Dokgo Yeong laughed heartily without releasing his momentum.
“When you get old, you tend to become greedier than you’d think.”
“Don’t you end up letting go of more things?”
“Right. That should be the case. But unfortunately, greed clings terribly and torments humans until the day they die. I suppose my training is still lacking, as I haven’t been able to shake off that greed. Haha.”
Soon, Dokgo Yeong’s bitter smile began to brighten.
“But how could all greed be bad? Don’t you agree?”
A new greed had formed within Dokgo Yeong, who was merely a human filled with countless desires.
Namely, to protect.
The people he cherished, the Demonic Alliance, and even the sound of laughter and the sky there.
It was all greed born of the cute and lovely little girl he had met for the first time today.
Therefore,
“I need to become stronger, because if I face the coming era like this, I feel like I’ll lose absolutely everything.”
It was an absurd statement.
Because it was a statement that didn’t suit him at all, for a man called one of the Absolutes of this era.
But Dokgo Yeong was sincere.
Starting with the matter of the Demons in the Demonic Alliance, the fact that the Strategist Sama Ryang was a traitor, and how he had almost fallen victim to the scheme Sama Ryang had prepared for a long time, he had felt a sense of powerlessness for the first time in a very long while.
Following that, seeing the existence known as Black Darkness, of which he had been completely unaware, along with the Successor of the Martial God who had dazzlingly appeared before him, he realized that a new wind was blowing through the Central Plains Murim.
Such signs were already occurring here and there.
The Mysterious Master Mu Myeong, who had defeated the Phantom Divine Monarch and risen to the position of the new Ten Great Masters.
And the hidden faction “Black Darkness,” whose reach was unknown, and the Demons they were creating.
And even Yeo Un-hwi, the Successor of the Martial God.
It was truly unbelievable.
To think there was a successor to the Martial God, the Foremost Person of All Time.
In truth, he couldn’t even express how surprised he was when he first heard that story.
Only then did Dokgo Yeong understand the nonsensical power Yeo Un-hwi possessed.
Anyway, all sorts of new masters were appearing like that.
To the point where one might wonder if even the “Heavenly Demon” would descend again.
What was certain was the fact that the approaching era would be an unprecedentedly heated era of turbulence.
Dokgo Yeong felt that if he didn’t want to be swept away by the new wind in that new era, and if he didn’t want to lose the precious things he had, he couldn’t stay as he was.
That was why he had asked Yeo Un-hwi for a spar.
With the sincere intention of learning a thing or two.
If not him, could the Black Emperor even consider learning a thing or two from what other opponent?
Yeo Un-hwi was the strongest existence Dokgo Yeong had met in his entire life.
Above all, he was the man who would become the center of the coming new era.
His conviction was close to absolute certainty.
“So please, help me, so that I can obtain the strength to protect my people even in that coming era.”
“I will gladly do so.”
Dokgo Yeong’s eyes, which had become desperate at some point.
Reading Dokgo Yeong’s heart in those eyes, Yeo Un-hwi soon nodded his head.
And then,
RUUUMBLE.
A brilliant golden light and a dazzling purple Aura soared endlessly into the sky.
Soon, those two massive Auras fiercely surged toward each other and clashed.