Shortly after, at the Poison Demon Sect's grounds.
General Manager Seok In-gu blinked at the sight before him.
"What are you all doing here......?"
Dozens of smiths who had once worked for the Poison Demon Sect had returned.
Among them, a sturdily built man with brawny forearms.
Cheol-u stepped forward as their representative and declared.
"How should we know? The Black Slaughter Sect told us to pack up and go back to the Poison Demon Sect."
"What do you mean?"
"We've got no idea what's going on either. And this......"
Cheol-u rummaged inside his robe and produced a letter.
"Some woman who escorted us said to give this to the General Manager."
"......?"
In-gu read it, and his eyes went wide.
"The Young Sect Leader recovered the smiths from the Black Slaughter Sect, so...... take them to the forge?"
For a moment, In-gu was struck speechless.
'Has the Young Sect Leader lost his mind?'
Wait — we don't even have a forge!
Was he supposed to just borrow one?
If so — and he begged forgiveness for the disrespectful thought —
This damned young sect leader had clearly gone insane.
'Lord have mercy. I won't live to see old age at this rate. We can barely feed the household we have — and now he's adding more mouths?!'
In-gu pressed his throbbing temples.
Cheol-u sensed something was off.
"General Manager, what's to become of us? If we're going to work for the Poison Demon Sect, can the sect actually afford to run a forge?"
"W-well......"
Led by Cheol-u, the other smiths also demanded answers.
"Tell us, please! If we're hired, can the Poison Demon Sect actually pay our stipends?"
"What about equipment? The forge hasn't been maintained in ages — is any of it even usable?!"
Their livelihoods were at stake — naturally they were anxious.
Cold sweat trickled down In-gu's brow.
'This is madness!'
Nothing had been prepared.
But the smiths, oblivious to this, pressed him harder.
"General Manager Seok, give us a straight answer!"
"He's right! Answer us! What are we supposed to do?!"
Should he just tell the truth?
No — that was the worst option.
Judging by the smiths' state, telling them the reality might spark an outright mutiny.
In-gu wanted to cry.
'What am I supposed to do?!'
At that very moment!
CRASH—!
Someone kicked the Poison Demon Sect's gate open with enough force to nearly break it off its hinges.
Every head turned.
"......?"
A strikingly handsome young man.
And beside him, a middle-aged man who clutched his forehead and scolded him.
"Hyeok, for the love of— gently! Gently! You nearly shattered a perfectly good gate!"
"Father, this is how you get everyone's attention."
The smiths stared at the two in bewilderment.
Un-hyeok pointed at them.
"See? They came in a mob, and if we'd been even a little later, there would have been real trouble."
"Sect Leaderrr!"
Like a drowning man who had found a lifeline.
In-gu shoved through the crowd of smiths and came scrambling to Ryeon-hwi.
"General Manager Seok."
In-gu blubbered as he pleaded.
"Where on earth did you go?! Do you have any idea what I've been through?!"
A grown man sniffling like a child — even Ryeon-hwi was taken aback.
"Well...... calm down first. What happened was......"
"Allow me to explain."
Un-hyeok stepped forward and addressed everyone.
"I'll cut right to the chase. From now on, you will all work at the Poison Demon Sect's forge!"
"And who are you to be making declarations?"
At Cheol-u's question, Un-hyeok pointed to himself.
"Me?"
"That's right."
Cheol-u, as the representative of the smiths present, stood before Un-hyeok.
"Even the General Manager couldn't give us an answer. So what gives you the authority to make guarantees?"
"He's right! We want a proper answer from the Sect Leader himself!"
"Sect Leader, please tell us!"
The other smiths chimed in one after another.
THOOM—!
Un-hyeok stamped the ground, and the shockwave rippled across the entire Poison Demon Sect compound.
"QUIET!!"
Every mouth snapped shut at once.
Un-hyeok addressed them.
"Your return to the Poison Demon Sect was my doing. So it's only right that you hear the answer from me."
"Who on earth are you......?"
"Dok Un-hyeok."
Dok Un-hyeok.
Dok Un...... hyeok?!
Surely not the Poison Demon Sect's disgrace — that Dok Un-hyeok?
"I am Dok Un-hyeok, young sect leader of the Poison Demon Sect!"
Cheol-u and the smiths' eyes went wide as lanterns.
Who was Dok Un-hyeok?
A wreck who spent every waking moment drowning in wine and women.
Yet how......
'Impossible. That strapping young gentleman is Dok Un-hyeok?'
The shock rendered them all speechless.
Un-hyeok pressed on.
"I can't go into every detail, but I'll address the things you're all wondering about!"
Un-hyeok raised his index finger.
"First. Don't worry about your stipends! They will be paid no matter what."
In-gu nearly jumped out of his skin.
Even so — you can't make empty promises when people's livelihoods are on the line!
Just as In-gu moved to stop Un-hyeok.
Ryeon-hwi caught his shoulder.
'Sect...... Leader?'
When In-gu turned, Ryeon-hwi shook his head.
'But why are you stopping me?'
Ryeon-hwi conveyed his message through voice transmission.
「I'm sorry I didn't have time to explain. But there's no need to worry about what Hyeok is saying. The funds to pay them have all been arranged.」
'What do you mean?'
「Hyeok — that boy — has forged a partnership with the Golden Dragon Chamber.」
'Wh-what?!'
In-gu could not transmit his voice, but his expression practically screamed "How?"
「Hyeok's resourcefulness is something else. It seems he's built quite a deep connection with the Golden Dragon Chamber.」
Interest-free loans.
On top of that, the Golden Dragon Chamber had even offered to lend their own forges until the Poison Demon Sect's revenue stabilized.
「So let's just watch for now. Hyeok seems to have it all figured out.」
Meanwhile, the smiths who had heard Un-hyeok's full explanation stared in astonishment.
"Is that true? The Poison Demon Sect can really afford to employ us?"
"That's right. We've also secured a forge, so use it to your heart's content. The only thing that's changed is you've moved from the Black Slaughter Sect back to the Poison Demon Sect!"
The smiths' gazes turned toward Ryeon-hwi.
Their eyes seemed to ask: "Can we really trust this?"
Ryeon-hwi raised his voice.
"On the name of Dok Ryeon-hwi, Sect Leader of the Poison Demon Sect — I swear that Hyeok's words are the absolute truth."
At that, the smiths' faces lit up.
"If the Sect Leader himself says so, then we can rest easy!"
With their livelihoods guaranteed, the mood among the rest softened as well.
"So we'll be working at the Poison Demon Sect again."
"A good thing! Did we leave because we hated the sect? We left because conditions forced us to."
The smiths nodded in agreement.
"Right, and honestly — the smiths at the Black Slaughter Sect treated us terribly."
"The moment they heard 'Poison Demon Sect,' they'd bully us endlessly. And they didn't even have the skill to back it up!"
"Exactly. When their chief smith ordered us to do nothing but grunt work...... if not for our families, I'd have walked out on the spot!"
"Amen to that."
"This...... can't be."
In-gu rubbed his eyes.
'Is this...... a dream?'
But the scene before him was undeniably real.
'Come to think of it, the Young Sect Leader declared he'd restore the Poison Demon Sect's glory when he fought Neung Ja-pil.'
The Poison Demon Sect's greatest headache was its finances. No income, only outflows.
In-gu had lost countless nights of sleep, wracking his brain to keep the sect's threadbare budget from collapsing entirely.
'The Young Sect Leader solved the most fundamental problem.'
These were seasoned smiths.
As long as they produced goods, sales would follow.
'At last — we finally have a real source of income!'
"Snff......!"
Getting old must be doing it — the tears came so easily now.
As In-gu dabbed his eyes with his sleeve, Ryeon-hwi patted his back.
"You've worked hard all this time. Keeping things together with nothing — I know how difficult that must have been. And I know it was thanks to you that the Poison Demon Sect held on."
"S-Sect Leader......!"
Knowing that someone recognized his efforts — what strength that gave his heart.
In this moment, In-gu was overwhelmed with emotion.
"Thank you...... thank you......"
"Thank me? That's my line."
Dok Ryeon-hwi clasped In-gu's hand tightly.
"Thank you for holding on."
"Snff......!"
Then Ryeon-hwi turned his gaze to Un-hyeok.
Watching him explain future plans to the smiths — a warm smile came unbidden.
'And I'm grateful to you too.'
The start may have been humble, but Un-hyeok was steadily advancing toward his goal.
Without him, none of this would have been possible.
"Snff......!"
Somewhat composed now.
In-gu blew his nose and clenched both fists.
"I've made up my mind, Sect Leader."
"Hm......?"
"I admit I lacked faith in the Young Sect Leader. But from now on — I, Seok In-gu!"
In-gu thumped his own chest.
"Will believe absolutely in whatever the Young Sect Leader says."
......Huh? Just like that?
Ryeon-hwi was caught off guard, but it seemed that Un-hyeok solving the financial crisis had struck In-gu with the force of divine revelation.
"If the Young Sect Leader declares a stone on the roadside to be a flower, then a flower it shall be."
"What are you...... how can a stone be a flower?"
"If it does not appear so, then my faith is simply not yet strong enough."
In-gu pressed his palms together toward Un-hyeok, eyes closed in reverence.
"Lord of Coin, I believe."
In that moment, Ryeon-hwi sensed it.
A zealot more devoted than himself had just been born.
***
Meanwhile.
The Mad Forge Artisan, U Gwang-mu, had been mulling over something the Black Slaughter Sect had told him recently.
'They said they'd obtained Black Spirit Stone Iron — that rare mineral.'
He had dragged his aged body along, eager to lift his hammer after so long.
Yet these fools had somehow lost their minds.
They had suddenly changed their story.
— We do not have the Black Spirit Stone Iron! Consider the commission to forge a weapon with it canceled.
What kind of nonsensical drivel was that?
He had been so excited at the prospect of working with Black Spirit Stone Iron.
When Gwang-mu pressed them, the insolent lot had the gall to turn hostile and slam the door in his face.
Now his stubbornness was roused.
The whereabouts of the Black Spirit Stone Iron.
Who had it ended up with?
'Something's clearly happened at the Black Slaughter Sect. I'd better go see that woman.'
Within the Cult, no one surpassed this woman when it came to information.
"The Chamber Master of the Golden Dragon Chamber."
So-ye greeted the Mad Forge Artisan with a smile.
"What brings you here, Master Artisan? I was just about to send word — we've found what you've been looking for."
"Oh......!"
The Mad Forge Artisan's eyes lit up.
"Could what you've found be the Black Spirit Stone Iron?"
So-ye took a sip of her tea.
"I see you already knew."
"Of course. The Black Slaughter Sect had originally commissioned me to forge a weapon with it. But then......"
Gwang-mu clicked his tongue in displeasure.
"They suddenly canceled the commission. That's why I came to you — hoping you might know whose hands the Black Spirit Stone Iron ended up in."
"I do indeed. As it happens, the Black Spirit Stone Iron recently changed owners."
"Changed owners? What do you mean?"
"Well......"
So-ye briefed him on the recent events between Un-hyeok and the Black Slaughter Sect.
Having heard the full account, the Mad Forge Artisan threw his head back and laughed.
"I see! No wonder the Black Slaughter Sect felt like a house of mourning."
The Black Slaughter Sect master was no ordinary man.
Yet to have been bested so thoroughly by a brat barely out of youth.
If word got out that the Black Spirit Stone Iron and their smiths had been taken as restitution, the Black Slaughter Sect's reputation within the Cult would be devastated.
No wonder they were hushing it up.
"Well, this is the most entertaining thing I've heard in ages. So the Black Spirit Stone Iron is now in the hands of this Dok Un-hyeok fellow?"
"Yes."
"Then the matter is settled."
The Mad Forge Artisan rose from his seat with purpose.
"I think I'll pay a visit. To meet this Dok Un-hyeok."