SWOOSH—!
As Wi So-baek raced as though flying through the wind, he finally understood what it meant to be so dumbfounded one might go mad.
What in the world should he be angry about first?
The fact that even with such an important event ahead, the Martial Alliance Leader's party could not refuse a suspicious village's request for help, tried to drive away a band of brigands, and was instead attacked by a suspicious group?
Or Se-jin, who, when the enemies proved too powerful, ordered his personal guard to protect the villagers and made himself the bait, drawing the enemies away before disappearing?
Ah.
He must not forget the Martial Alliance Leader's personal guard, who stubbornly persisted in their poor judgment until they ultimately lost their master.
If they had not raced to Wuchang to warn others that their master was in danger even while on the verge of death, well.
Wi So-baek would not have left alive those who had forgotten their duty and failed to attend their master properly through arrogant inaction.
‘Namgung Min and Dang Eok, was it?’
He meant the two whom Ga Jeong-hak and Cheol Myeong-hwan had found and brought back after leaving the tent to look around because they felt stifled.
The rest of the personal guard were said to still be searching for Se-jin around Xiaogan County, where the incident had occurred.
And then there was the Martial Alliance leadership.
Despite this concerning their own leader, they had crawled out of the tent last. When they saw Namgung Min and Dang Eok, their eyes widened.
As if people who had no right to be there had arrived.
Wi So-baek could not possibly have mistaken their alarm for surprise.
So the Martial Alliance leadership's plan had not ended with delaying their leader to prevent him from attending the Grand Martial Conference.
The Martial Alliance leadership intended to eliminate the current leader and leave his seat vacant!
Then, after the Grand Martial Conference changed the balance of the martial world, they meant to reshape the power structure to their liking!
‘Se-jin is an easy piece to manipulate once they seize a weakness, but he was also too dangerous to leave alone.’
His talent and ability were both dazzling. As time passed, more and more people would inevitably gather around him, feeding their fear that one day he would surpass them and become the true Alliance Leader.
It was only natural that they would want to eliminate him before he could shine even brighter at the Grand Martial Conference.
Even so, Wi So-baek could not understand why they had gone so far and made such a tremendous move in the middle of the Grand Martial Conference.
He had wondered whether they felt no fear of how he might respond.
His confusion did not last long.
Every time Wi So-baek showed concern for Se-jin or mentioned Xiaogan County, the Martial Alliance leaders' faces grew haggard.
As though they had never doubted that Wi So-baek would have no interest whatsoever in their leader.
As though they assumed that Wi So-baek, hailed as a scion of the direct line of the demonic and unorthodox traditions, would naturally despise their leader for his origins as a lowly wandering warrior.
They claimed that although their leader had let his guard down and become entangled in a disturbing incident, the Grand Martial Conference was of paramount importance to the foundations of the martial world, so the meeting must continue.
They truly believed that argument would work on Wi So-baek, their eyes shining and their expressions resolute.
That was why.
No one under heaven could be unaware that the Martial Alliance Leader had been on his way to attend the Grand Martial Conference.
When Wi So-baek said that inflicting meaningful harm upon such a man amounted to showing contempt for Wi So-baek himself, the Martial Alliance leaders looked ready to faint.
It was also why the ones who tried to cling to Wi So-baek's trouser legs when he declared he would go himself were not the Demon Alliance warriors, but the Martial Alliance leaders.
Of course, Wi So-baek had no intention of letting them hold him back.
“Worthless vermin.”
Wi So-baek felt as though merely recalling them dirtied his mind.
“They can do this because they do not know, because they know nothing. They do not know how deeply I cherish you, my younger brother, so they can scheme with such brazen faces.”
Only two people under heaven knew of the time spent trapped inside the formation: Wi So-baek and his younger brother, Jang Se-jin.
The number who knew had gradually begun to grow, one by one, but most of the world still believed the two men were rivals bound by an ill-fated relationship that made any association impossible.
“Tsk.”
Enough.
What use was there in dwelling on that now?
Wi So-baek would hurry to Xiaogan County, find the younger brother who had lived all those years yet still wandered about so carelessly that he lost his way!
Then they would go to Wuchang together.
And continue the Grand Martial Conference.
The meeting would be most enjoyable as Wi So-baek ground the Martial Alliance leaders down, one by one.
“After turning it over in my mind, I still have no idea what I should be angry about first. But I now know what angers me most.”
Even as he muttered, Wi So-baek's speed did not fall in the slightest.
However.
No one could keep up with that speed, so he had even left behind the subordinates who begged him to take them.
“You there.”
“Yes? Yes? Do you mean me, sir?”
“Is this the right road to Xiaogan County?”
Wi So-baek stopped people at random to ask, yet every last one answered with as much sincerity as they could muster.
“If you are heading to Xiaogan County, take that road rather than this one.......”
“Is that so?”
“Would you like me to find you a carriage or another group to travel with?”
“No need. You may go.”
Once Wi So-baek gave them permission to leave, they bowed repeatedly.
“Thank you! Thank you!”
Wi So-baek waved a hand as if to say it was enough, then stepped off in the direction they had given him.
After he left, the people nearby questioned the one who remained.
“Did you know that gentleman?”
“...No? I met him for the first time today.”
“Then why did you answer him so eagerly?”
“Did he look like someone you could refuse? Do you think you would have acted any differently?”
At his companion's words, the man rolled his eyes in thought, then quickly agreed.
“True. He was a noble young master who made it impossible not to.”
His appearance, his bearing, and even his smallest movement all supported that answer.
“Besides, at first I thought one wrong word might get me killed, but....... At the end... look at this!”
The man opened his hand.
“Gasp?”
When they saw the large silver ingot resting in his palm, though no one knew when he had received it, those around him gasped.
“What a windfall!”
It was a satisfying outcome for everyone involved, but Wi So-baek found the entire process bothersome.
“I will have to select some useful ones and teach them lightness arts first.”
While he was at it, he should find people suited to guarding someone as well.
After giving those people a few pointers, he would send them to the Martial Alliance. Cho Myeong would place them under himself for a time, then arrange for them to join the Alliance Leader's personal guard.
Wi So-baek continued forward while recalling several martial arts that would not seem out of place among the righteous sects, along with minor clans and sects that could enter the Martial Alliance without drawing suspicion.
All the while, he repeated one thing to himself.
Se-jin was strong.
So he could not have been badly hurt.
At last, Wi So-baek reached Xiaogan County, which lay on the route from Hunan into Hebei.
“What a mess.”
The village was fairly large, but he did not need to enter to imagine the chaos within.
Nor did he intend to enter normally.
BOOM—!
Wi So-baek summoned flames and struck the ground. Earth and smoke surged upward with the explosion.
“Who goes there?!”
Several people rushed out of the village.
They were in poor condition, but their auras remained sharp.
That, however, was their concern.
Wi So-baek had no desire to humor a pack of bastards who had lost their master and now suffered alone like whimpering dogs.
“Where is the Alliance Leader?”
At Wi So-baek's question, the warriors who appeared to belong to the personal guard raised their vigilance.
Had any of them recognized his identity, their hostility would have been fiercer still, but apparently none had.
Either none had participated in the Righteous-Demonic War, or he and Se-jin had caused such chaos that day that they had never gotten a proper look at him.
It had to be one or the other.
When Wi So-baek waved his hand, the force they had projected rebounded upon them in full.
BAM, BAM—!
The warriors clutched their chests and staggered three or four steps backward.
It was fortunate that they had released only killing intent. Had tangible force been mixed into it, their flesh would have burst apart.
“If I meant to kill you, you would already be dead. Your companion came to Wuchang and asked for help, so stop wasting time and adding to your master's injuries. Tell me everything you know.”
Wi So-baek pulled from his robes the sword ornament he had torn from Namgung Min and casually tossed it to the ground.
Their looks seemed to ask why he had not shown them that in the first place, and his lips twisted.
If he had thrown it down at the outset, they would obviously have asked where he had obtained it, refused to believe him, and made themselves even more troublesome.
The warriors exchanged glances. Perhaps deciding the situation truly was urgent, one stepped forward.
“We believe he headed toward Hanchuan. Personal Guard Captain Moyong and the other members are still searching that area for traces left by the Alliance Leader.”
“Hmm.”
“They told us to direct anyone coming from Wuchang to help toward that place.”
“And you?”
“Pardon?”
“Why are you still here?”
Hanchuan lay south of Xiaogan.
Wuchang was southeast of Xiaogan, which meant.......
What could it mean that Se-jin, who knew heading toward Wuchang would be most advantageous to him, had moved in a direction he did not want to take?
It meant the situation was turning against Se-jin!
Wi So-baek looked past the shoulders of the personal guards toward the village.
The surviving villagers peeked out from behind houses that had been half destroyed and left open to view, and trees that were snapped, splintered, and visibly scorched.
“If anyone came here to ask, you could have told the villagers to pass on the message. Then you could have gone to help that Personal Guard Captain Moyong or whatever his name is.”
“But they might return, and if no one remains to protect this place, public order will become unstable......”
When the warrior who had answered Wi So-baek spoke again, Wi So-baek gave a short laugh.
“Ah, so that is more important than your leader's safety? What a thing for a member of his personal guard to say.”
Wi So-baek looked between the villagers and the personal guards, then asked another question.
“But do you truly believe those villagers are entirely innocent? Your Alliance Leader is by no means weak, yet a mere band of brigands displayed enough power to threaten him? And ordinary villagers happened to know of such an attack in advance, then asked your passing group to stop it?”
As his gaze grew even colder, the warriors opposite him unconsciously moved their hands to their swords.
The atmosphere alone was that threatening.
But Wi So-baek took no further action.
“Do you pity the weak? Do you feel that the strong bear a duty to show generosity? Then carve away your own flesh. Do not offer your innocent leader as the sacrifice. Do not hold him up as your pride and bind him to the banner of justice.”
A good person is not one who helps others.
It is one who does not try to drag others into the same pit.
That is why it is difficult for the weak to be good.......
And why the strong do not try to become good.
The personal guards flushed red with shame and tried to protest, but Wi So-baek gave them no chance.
Having said what he wished, he kicked off the ground and launched himself into the air.
Then he vanished.
“Ha! Who the hell was that?!”
“Did he not seem familiar?”
“Nothing about his behavior or aura resembled the Nine Great Sects and One Gang. Given how casually he spoke of the Alliance Leader, could he be a central figure from one of the Five Great Clans?”
They tried to ease the tension by talking among themselves, but it did not work.
Their steps were heavy as they returned to the village.
***
“There they are.”
Moyong U spoke to his subordinates.
Their numbers were few, but they could not let go of the enemies' trail after finally catching it.
“We must capture them somehow and learn what they are doing and where the Alliance Leader has gone.”
And interfere with them, creating an opening so the Alliance Leader can hold out until reinforcements arrive!
Moyong U and the members of the personal guard lowered themselves and moved toward the grass.
Just before they fell upon the enemy!
“Ambush!”
Loud shouts rang out from every direction, and the long grass rustled.
Moyong U looked around and saw enemies surrounding them.
They seemed to have left five or six people in plain sight while the rest hid nearby.
“Damn it, it was a trap!”
Moyong U gritted his teeth and knocked aside the sword strikes pouring down on them, about to unleash his inner arts.
Bands of light poured down, and cracks spread across the bodies of the enemies surrounding Moyong U and the personal guard.
“You should probably move.”
The sudden voice seemed like an auditory hallucination.
Moyong U and his personal guards froze in hesitation, and blood from the enemies' sundered bodies poured over them from head to toe.
A strange figure landed a short distance away as lightly as a leaf and shook his head.
“I told you to move.”
He spoke as he looked at the people drenched in crimson blood.
It was Wi So-baek, who had reached Hanchuan as quickly as possible.