Episode 89
Mancheong Pavilion of the Martial Alliance.
Chief Commander Jegal Jigang slammed his hand down on the table, his face twisted with fury.
Bang!
“What did you say?! That Gu Yuumma Jigi-eum actually said something like that?!”
The head of Mancheong Pavilion, kneeling before him, bowed his head again and replied,
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Ugh!”
The report was that Gu Yuumma Jigi-eum, who had gone to the Jeonghyeop faction to deal with Sa Won-yang, had mentioned Jegal Jigang’s name openly in front of Cheongseong and the Tang Gate.
Jegal Jigang realized he had been outmaneuvered.
Originally, he had planned to expose the Jeonghyeop faction and use that leverage to pressure the Blood Demons for breaking their pact. But that man had acted swiftly, eliminating Sa Won-yang with his own hands before Jegal could intervene.
He could understand that much. It was likely meant to prove to the martial world that they had no involvement and to flaunt their loyalty to the pact.
But to drag Jegal Jigang’s name into it…
Jegal clenched his teeth and muttered,
“That snake of a man…”
On the surface, their mentioning his name might seem like an attempt to prove their innocence.
But Jegal suspected there was more to it.
With that statement, the martial world would now associate him—the military commander of the Martial Alliance—and by extension the Alliance itself, with the Blood Demons.
This would dilute the hostility toward the Blood Demons, spreading some of that animosity onto the Martial Alliance instead.
From now on, whenever the martial world recalled the atrocities committed by the Blood Demons, they would also think of the Martial Alliance.
Moreover, Jegal felt this was a warning from the Blood Demons.
“They’re basically saying they don’t care if everything is exposed. They want me to think carefully about who would suffer more if the truth comes out.”
This was likely the Blood Demons’ reply to Jegal’s attempt to pressure them.
Jegal struggled to calm his rage.
But it wasn’t just the report about the Jeonghyeop faction that angered him.
“This… is a letter from Geomseong?”
“Yes, sir.”
Previously, Jegal had requested Geomseong to come to the Jeonghyeop faction to deal with the situation, and had also asked the Blood Demons to handle him.
But as Jegal read Geomseong’s reply, he had to grit his teeth to keep from showing his frustration in front of his subordinates.
The letter said that Geomseong was too preoccupied with the front lines and that matters north of the front had to be handled by the Alliance itself.
In other words, despite the Alliance’s orders, Geomseong refused to move from the front.
“If Geomseong isn’t moving from the front…”
Clenching his teeth, Jegal hurried back to the military office, where he found a secret letter from the Blood Demons.
It contained the expected message:
[Since he didn’t show up at the Jeonghyeop faction, we couldn’t kill him. After all the preparation, it was a wasted effort. I worry that your military prowess isn’t what it used to be, Commander Jegal. But I trust you wouldn’t foolishly ask us to kill him at the front lines. The price for making us waste our time will be paid later.]
“Grrr!”
Jegal crumpled the letter in anger.
The Blood Demons were right.
They couldn’t kill Geomseong at the front.
If Geomseong—the idol of the martial world—were killed by the Blood Demons at the front, no matter how powerful Jegal was within the Martial Alliance, he wouldn’t be able to prevent the outbreak of the current Great Blood War.
So instead of eliminating Geomseong, Jegal had ended up owing the Blood Demons a favor—and even becoming the subject of their mockery.
His fury boiled over.
It was all because of Geomseong.
Alone in his office, Jegal shouted the name filled with rage,
“Ha Eun-bae-aek!”
But after a moment, as he forced himself to cool down, Jegal couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
Blood Demon leaders had appeared north of the front and even mentioned the Great Blood War, yet Geomseong ignored it all and refused to act.
No matter how great the shock of losing his daughter, this behavior was unlike the Geomseong Jegal had known—too strange, too alien.
And it seemed he was deliberately choosing actions that caused trouble for Jegal.
Jegal stroked his beard thoughtfully.
“Strange. Very strange.”
If he dismissed this as mere coincidence, he would be unfit as a strategist.
Someone must be pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Suddenly, the most suspicious names came to mind.
“Could it be the Sama family has started moving?”
The Sama family had been the right hand of the previous Martial Alliance leader, Gu Hyeopwang Cheon Gi-seong.
For nearly a hundred years, they had pushed the Jegal family aside and held the title of the world’s strongest martial clan.
After Jegal Jigang rose to power as the military commander under the current leader Moyong Geom, he had thoroughly crushed them—ensuring they would never rise again.
Since then, he had never lowered his guard or heard any reports of their activity.
But if anyone had the cunning to cause him this much trouble, it would be them.
Jegal stood abruptly and headed back to Mancheong Pavilion.
He needed a detailed report on the movements of the Sama family, Geomseong, and the current crisis.
At the Yin Shadow Corps, Deputy Commander Joo Won-seo was inspecting a remote manor deep in the forest with his subordinates.
This was the very estate where the mighty Blood Demon Jeo Ung-won had stayed with his men.
One subordinate approached and reported,
“Deputy Commander, we found nine bodies of Yin Shadow Corps members. Their remains were badly mangled, as if crushed by powerful force, and too decomposed to confirm identities.”
Frowning, Joo Won-seo looked down at the bodies before him and asked again,
“Is there no way to identify at least the body of Eighth Squad Leader Hoo Ja-seung?”
“No, sir. It seems unlikely.”
Hoo Ja-seung, who had tracked Jeo Ung-won and uncovered his ties to the Jeonghyeop faction, had not responded at all to the summons sent after that report.
It was as if he had vanished—or worse, been wiped out before he could send any message.
So instead of waiting for a reply, Joo Won-seo had come here himself to find him.
But all they found were the corpses of Blood Demons and Yin Shadow Corps members, apparently slaughtered in battle.
The bodies were so decomposed in the hot forest that no identification was possible—not even to confirm if Hoo Ja-seung was among them.
Joo Won-seo muttered with a furrowed brow,
“Strange. If they fought Jeo Ung-won’s men here, how did they manage to send a report? And how were the captured women rescued?”
A subordinate cautiously suggested,
“Perhaps he was severely wounded but managed to send a report with his last strength before dying…”
“Hmm, Hoo Ja-seung, you say?”
Joo Won-seo remembered that Hoo Ja-seung was not the kind of man known for strong responsibility or diligence.
If anything, he had a disturbing enjoyment of killing that had always made Joo Won-seo frown.
After a moment’s thought, Joo Won-seo ordered,
“Stop the investigation for now and gather everyone. Return to report to the commander and await further orders. But you three, try to track down the women who were rescued here. Get any testimony about who saved them.”
“Yes, sir!”
After that, Joo Won-seo and his men dispersed.
Once everyone had left the manor, a shadowy figure dressed in black silently emerged from the shade of a nearby tree.
It was Sak Mu-heun, former Third Squad Leader of the Yin Shadow Corps, now aiding Hae Cheong-yeon.
He frowned and muttered,
“As Sister Cheong-yeon predicted, they came out to investigate themselves. And of all things, they’re looking into the kidnapped women. Sharp move.”
Hae Cheong-yeon had long anticipated this and had Sak Mu-heun fabricate evidence suggesting a battle between Jeo Ung-won’s gang and the Yin Shadow Corps.
Enough time had passed that the investigators found nothing suspicious.
But they hadn’t dared touch the matter of the kidnapped women.
Sak Mu-heun alone couldn’t manage all of them.
He had hoped the others wouldn’t think to investigate that far…
“This is going to get complicated.”
Sak Mu-heun wrote a brief note and attached it to a messenger pigeon.
It was a message to Cheong-yeon.
After watching the pigeon fly safely into the sky, Sak Mu-heun began tracking those who had gone to investigate the women.
If they discovered anything significant, he might have to deal with it.
Cornered and pushed to the brink, the Mountain Sword Sect had somehow survived.
Despite two crushing defeats, most had predicted this would be the sect’s final downfall.
The Jeonghyeop faction’s main forces had gathered at the border of Guiju City to attack the Mountain Sword Sect, so such a prediction was natural.
No one expected the Jeonghyeop faction to collapse from within.
When it was suddenly revealed that the Jeonghyeop faction’s leader was actually the Blood Demon Ma-du So Myeonma-gun, and their main base was seized by Cheongseong and the Tang Gate, the Jeonghyeop forces assembled at Guiju were thrown into chaos.
Most of them were pure-hearted orthodox martial artists who took pride in the name Jeonghyeop.
In fact, when they first heard the news, everyone scoffed.
“Our Lord of the Chamber is the infamous Madou Somyeon Magun of the Blood Sect?! Hah! What a ridiculous joke!”
“Looks like those Mountain Sword Sect bastards are trying some trick to escape this crisis!”
“Typical underhanded schemes from the heretics!”
But as time passed, the rumors grew more detailed and credible. Even the leadership, who had seemed ready to launch an immediate assault on the Mountain Sword Sect, gathered solemnly for meetings, their faces grave. The warriors of the Justice Alliance had no choice but to accept that these weren’t baseless rumors.
They were plunged into despair.
“How could this be…?”
“All we’ve done until now—was it all just at the Blood Sect’s command?”
They no longer knew what to do or whom to trust.
Some warriors, disillusioned, abandoned the group and slipped away.
Yet most remained gathered near Guizhou Fortress, lost and confused, unsure of their next move.
Then, unexpectedly, someone came to them.
It was Heo Kyung, the Mountain Sword Sect’s leader—the very man they had been preparing to fight.
He arrived with only a small group, but boldly entered the Justice Alliance’s camp.
With a voice full of inner strength, he declared loudly:
“I am Heo Kyung, leader of the Mountain Sword Sect! Though I have lost my beloved younger brother and division leader, Heo Jung, to your invasion, I refuse to believe that this was the true will of the righteous heroes of the Justice Alliance! I am convinced, as recent revelations have shown, that this was the Blood Sect’s conspiracy—an insidious plot to pit us against each other! I come now to propose a truce! If you are not mere puppets of the Blood Sect seeking to sow discord among us, then answer me now—let us talk!”
He positioned himself as a victim of the Justice Alliance’s aggression, yet insisted he bore no grudge and sought dialogue—if they were not agents of the Blood Sect.
The Justice Alliance had no grounds to refuse.
Though they had suffered more casualties, they had been the first to invade, and now even their own leaders eyed each other with suspicion.
Reluctantly, the top warriors of the Justice Alliance agreed to the meeting.
What Heo Kyung revealed next was beyond anything they had imagined.
“The people who came with me are the Five Eagles siblings who saved our Mountain Sword Sect.”
The Five Eagles siblings were already famous even among the Justice Alliance.
In some ways, as enemies, they were even more renowned there than within the Mountain Sword Sect itself.
As everyone admired the beauty of the fourth sibling, Yeon Hae—the Heavenly Beauty of the Skies—Heo Kyung continued, following the script prepared by Hae Cheong-yeon.
“Actually, these are not mere ronin. They were sent by a benefactor from my past who came to aid me. Especially this young lady, Yeon Hae, who carries on the legacy of the Hangsan Sect’s true successor.”