Chapter 142 - The Answer Lies with You

Chu Saeng, the leader of the Moon Wind Sect, was struggling to contain his boiling anger.

“Please don’t worry too much. Several sects in Hunan have promised to cooperate with us.”

It was precisely this sort of talk that infuriated him. Hearing it from Seok Hyeong, a man he trusted, only made him angrier.

“Cooperate? How? Give me specifics. How many men did they promise to send, when, and where?”

Seok Hyeong could not answer. They had merely agreed to help; no sect had offered anything that concrete. Despite all their efforts to keep the matter secret, rumors of the Demonic Cult’s involvement were already spreading.

“Put yourself in their shoes. Would I send you off to fight those Demonic Cult bastards? They’ll pretend to be concerned, but they’ll be too busy locking their own doors.”

Chu Saeng sprang to his feet. He looked ready to smash something then and there, and Seok Hyeong tried to calm him.

“Please restrain yourself.”

“How am I supposed to restrain myself when I’m this angry? Those Demonic Cult sons of bitches! I’ll chew them up alive!”

BANG!

Chu Saeng thrust out a palm, blasting a hole in the wall. Since the incident, he had already put more than twenty holes in it. They patched one, and he made another. They patched that, and he made another.

He was furious and felt terribly wronged. He could not contain the anger surging inside him. And beneath all those emotions lay fear.

Fear that the bastard would return.

Chu Saeng could not sleep at night, and his nerves were stretched to the breaking point.

“Why don’t we ask the Orthodox Martial Alliance for help, even now?”

The Moon Wind Sect stood between the orthodox and unorthodox paths and belonged to neither the Orthodox Martial Alliance nor the Unorthodox Alliance.

“If we do that, we’ll be at the mercy of those Orthodox Martial Alliance bastards from then on. If they resolve this, they’ll use it as leverage to demand our unconditional obedience. Even if they fail, they’ll find one excuse after another to bring us under their control.”

Sects affiliated with the Orthodox Martial Alliance had to pay it a fixed sum every year. The same held true for the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon and the Unorthodox Alliance. In return, they could receive help when trouble arose.

Money aside, Chu Saeng did not want to join the orthodox factions.

Just then, someone voiced exactly what he was thinking.

“You wouldn’t want to answer to bastards who never do a thing for you but keep squeezing money out of you. Isn’t that right?”

Startled, Chu Saeng and Seok Hyeong turned around. A young man stood in the main hall, though neither had noticed him enter.

Seok Hyeong stepped between the man and his sect leader and drew his sword.

“Who are you?”

Both men tensed at the realization that someone had come this far inside without their noticing.

The young man replied,

“I’m here from the Divine Cult.”

The man who had given them such a fright was none other than me.

I could have announced myself at the entrance, but I had deliberately chosen not to. The Moon Wind Sect was in utter chaos, with martial artists crowding everywhere from the gates to the inner grounds.

“Forgive me. I dislike crowds, so I came in quietly.”

Chu Saeng motioned Seok Hyeong back. He was acknowledging that, had I intended to ambush them, they would already be dead.

“I am Chu Saeng, leader of the Moon Wind Sect.”

Having lost his father at an early age, he was among the youngest sect leaders in Hunan Province, still in his late twenties.

I did not reveal my identity to him.

“I’ve come to deal with the recent incident at your sect. Circumstances prevent me from revealing my identity, but you recognize this, I trust?”

I showed them an identification token engraved with the fiend that symbolized the Cult.

Naturally, Chu Saeng’s first reaction was suspicion.

“Tokens can be forged. That alone isn’t enough to convince me.”

“How did someone so suspicious fall for their deception?”

“You go too far!”

As Seok Hyeong took a step forward, I extended my hand.

WHOOSH!

The demonic qi I released constricted Seok Hyeong’s body.

He let out a strangled grunt and could no longer move. As his breath was cut off, his face turned crimson.

“Sometimes strength can serve in place of identification, can it not?”

With my demonic qi dominating the space around us, Chu Saeng spoke urgently.

“Enough! I’ve already lost several of my men. I cannot lose another. Let him go.”

When I withdrew my demonic qi, Seok Hyeong could move again, gasping for breath. He glared at me with fear in his eyes, yet still stood in front of Chu Saeng to protect him.

“I too have subordinates as loyal as you. Losing them would feel as though my heart had been torn from my chest. I’m sure Sect Leader Chu feels the same, so neither of you should act rashly.”

I spoke to Seok Hyeong, but the words were also meant for Chu Saeng. Quick to take the hint, he sent Seok Hyeong out.

“Wait outside.”

“Yes, sir.”

Judging by how readily he left under these circumstances, Chu Saeng must have sent him a sound transmission. Since the two of them could not face me alone anyway, he had probably ordered him to gather all the Moon Wind Sect’s experts outside.

Even with only the two of us remaining, Chu Saeng held his ground.

“First you cause this disaster, and now you come to clean it up? What exactly are you trying to do?”

“I’m not here to clean it up. I’m here to investigate. We weren’t responsible for the earlier incident.”

Chu Saeng snorted. He had fallen victim to the Heavenly Mandate Society impersonating one of the Cult’s Demon Supremes, and he firmly believed we were responsible.

Several similar incidents had occurred recently, but not all the sects of the Central Plains knew about them yet.

In other words, the Heavenly Mandate Society had yet to truly emerge into the public eye.

“Tell me what happened. If I’d come to harm you, would I be standing here arguing with you?”

That seemed to get through to him, and Chu Saeng finally began to speak about the incident.

“Not long ago, someone came here claiming to be from the Divine Cult.”

“Who did he say he was?”

“He was the Wicked Laughing Demon.”

I had known they were impersonating a Demon Supreme, but not that it was the Wicked Laughing Demon.

An incredulous laugh escaped me. Of all people, they had chosen to impersonate him? What did they plan to do if the real Wicked Laughing Demon caught them?

“What did he look like?”

“He wore a white mask.”

Fair enough. Since he wore a mask, the Wicked Laughing Demon would indeed be the easiest Demon Supreme to impersonate.

“You believed him just because he wore a mask?”

Chu Saeng answered with absolute conviction.

“He was the real Wicked Laughing Demon.”

“Why are you so certain?”

In an instant, anger engulfed him.

“He killed our sect’s experts in the blink of an eye. His finger force punched holes through their faces, and his palm technique shattered their torsos into scattered pieces. One of the dead was among our three strongest experts. If he wasn’t the Wicked Laughing Demon, who else could he have been?”

Apparently, they had even imitated the Wicked Laughing Demon’s signature demonic arts, the Ultimate Demonic Rampage Palm and Blood Calamity Finger. Under those circumstances, Chu Saeng could hardly have believed otherwise.

“After killing the men who tried to protect me and turning this place into a sea of blood, the Wicked Laughing Demon forced us to submit to the Demonic Cult and swear our loyalty.”

The bastard had slaughtered people needlessly, solely to frighten his victims. That act alone made him an evil deserving of death.

“Do you know what he did next? I would be less bewildered now if he’d simply massacred us. At least I could have thought we’d just had the rotten luck to cross his path and die.”

“What did he do?”

“He took our money before leaving. He demanded every bit of money we could produce then and there. He cleaned out the sect’s funds. You’re nothing but thieves, yet you have the gall...!”

Whatever insult followed, I could have understood it under the circumstances.

“How much did he take?”

“About sixty-two thousand taels.”

Only now did I understand Chu Saeng’s anger. I also understood why the walls had so many holes.

“If we’d fought over something else and lost, I wouldn’t feel so wronged. Submit to the Demonic Cult? Don’t make me laugh! That was an excuse. He killed my men like that to steal our money. Do you understand? My men died over mere money! He could have just asked for it in the first place!”

Unable to contain himself, he roared.

“Aaaargh! I’m so angry I can’t stand it. This will be the death of me.”

The way Chu Saeng spoke made me think he had once been a cheerful, fun-loving man. At this rate, he would never return to that life. The families of the dead, their friends, the survivors—the number of victims was not yet final.

“Sect Leader Chu, you’re too angry right now to put your strengths to use.”

“What strengths?”

I took a sheet of paper from inside my robe and read it aloud.

“Chu Saeng, leader of the Moon Wind Sect. Sharp-minded, with sound judgment. Proud and somewhat hotheaded.”

“What bastard wrote that assessment?”

“The head of the Heaven-Reaching Pavilion’s Hunan branch. Would you like to meet him?”

Chu Saeng stared at me, unsure whether to believe this, then reproached himself in a deflated voice.

“What good are a sharp mind and sound judgment? I was helpless against him.”

“But you still need to take revenge, don’t you?”

At the word revenge, resolve hardened in Chu Saeng’s eyes.

“I will. I most certainly will.”

There had been a time when I felt the same.

Revenge in my sleep, revenge over meals, revenge whenever I saw another person. A time when I could not lead a normal life because the only thought in my head was how to take revenge.

Chu Saeng was no different. His enemy was someone he could not confront through ordinary means.

Fortunately, though, just as I had met Seo Jin, he had met me.

“I’ll help you take that revenge.”

Chu Saeng went to the table and gulped down cold tea straight from the pot.

“Was this truly not your doing?”

“Doesn’t something strike you as odd? If the real Wicked Laughing Demon had wanted your money, would he have left after taking only sixty-two thousand taels? He would have stripped you of everything.”

“What if it was simply a form of amusement?”

“If he indulged in this sort of amusement, he would die at the hands of our cult leader, the Heavenly Demon. But let’s say it was for amusement. If that were the case, who here would still be alive?”

“To be honest, I found it strange too. So I thought the Wicked Laughing Demon had gone mad.”

He might go mad someday if he kept staring at that white wall, though.

“He’s still sane. I met him not long ago.”

Chu Saeng flinched at the revelation that I had met the Wicked Laughing Demon. Given the strength I had demonstrated, however, he did not seem to take it as a bluff.

“Are you saying the Wicked Laughing Demon really is at your Cult?”

For a moment, I hesitated to answer. The Wicked Laughing Demon had not been in Villains’ Valley when I departed.

“He was.”

I did not answer that way merely to avoid arguing with Chu Saeng. It was because I was certain this was not the Wicked Laughing Demon’s doing. Father said you could never truly know what lay in someone’s heart, but there were still things you could know. However evil the Wicked Laughing Demon might be, he was not the sort of man to do this.

“If that man was a fake, then the man in your Cult must be a fake too.”

I wondered just how overwhelming an impression the impostor had made for him to go that far.

I walked slowly around the main hall, looking about and imagining what had happened. The slaughter of the Moon Wind Sect’s martial artists. The theft of their money.

Why had they done this? For money? Or to draw us in? I had to find clues about them in this baffling incident.

“Fine. Let’s say he was a fake, as you claim. Why in the world did that impostor do this? Was he trying to drive a wedge between you and the Orthodox Martial Alliance? Start a war?”

“If that were the case, he would have targeted an orthodox sect affiliated with the Orthodox Martial Alliance.”

“Then what in the world is going on?”

“That is why I’m here. To find out.”

After studying me for a moment, Chu Saeng opened the door and went outside. Seok Hyeong and dozens of Moon Wind Sect martial artists had taken up positions there.

Stepping out alone, Chu Saeng told Seok Hyeong,

“Dismiss all the men and have a guest room cleaned and prepared for him. We’ll be treating him as an honored guest for the time being.”

“Yes, understood.”

Seok Hyeong looked relieved. Despite gathering the martial artists, he must have concluded that they could not handle me.

Chu Saeng came back inside.

“I can’t shake the thought that you might be working with that bastard. Even so, I intend to trust you. Do you know why? Because right now, I have to clutch at any straw I can.”

Then he suddenly looked up at the ceiling and shouted.

“Father! Grandfather! Please help me! Don’t let them toy with me anymore! Watch over our sect! Save my men!”

Considering that fate had brought him to me, his ancestors were already helping him plenty.

After that bout of shouting, he revealed his true feelings, lowering his voice so his men outside would not hear.

“Your arrival has ruined me. If he’s a fake Wicked Laughing Demon, as you say, then I can’t abandon my revenge. If it really were the Demonic Cult, I could at least give up, knowing there was nothing I could do. Because of you, I’ve stepped onto a bridge I can never turn back from. I’ll have to spend my whole life crossing this endless bridge of vengeance!”

“I’ll help you cross that bridge.”

In my previous life, I had arrived late and left this place without investigating properly in my haste.

Back then, I had not truly seen Father or Yi An. It was a time when I saw only myself, never anyone else, so naturally I had not seen Chu Saeng either.

“There are countless sects in Murim. There must be a reason they chose yours, of all places. Why you? Young, sharp-minded, hotheaded, and proud. Aside from what’s written on this paper, what else is there to you?”

I approached him and stared intently into his face as I spoke.

“There must be a reason they chose you. Give me the answer!”