Chapter 314
After teaming up with Jin So-cheong, we wasted no time and headed straight to the Shadowless Gate’s underground, using the Golden Lamp technique because it was the closest base and equipped with the best torture facilities. The sudden move to a poorly lit area had Namgung Hwan, who had been suppressed by the bloodline, looking pretty shocked.
“Where are we…?”
The torture chamber of the Shadowless Gate was eerily dim, lit only by a single flickering candle. Ignoring Namgung Hwan, I turned to Mangnyang.
“So, what do we do now?”
Mangnyang glanced at Mo Yong-yeon before replying, “Mo Yong-yeon, we’ve got everything prepared as we discussed.”
“What do you mean?”
“No need for pleasantries. We’re going to hear Namgung Hwan’s true intentions, then decide your next steps.”
Mo Yong-yeon hesitated, and Mangnyang shot me a look. I stepped closer and pressed my finger to Namgung Hwan’s philtrum. Then, I positioned his aura in accordance to the Eight Trigram Seal, completely putting his body under its influence.
Crack!
“GAAAAAAAAAH!!”
Namgung Hwan flailed about like a fish struck by lightning, utterly horrified. I calmly explained to the panicking Namgung Hwan,
“This is how the Eight Trigram Seal works. I’ve already suppressed Geon and Dui. As the others—Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, and Kun—unfold, the seals will trigger in turn. Your pain will become increasingly acute, and your sense of time will keep slowing down.”
I playfully flicked his forehead. He broke out in a cold sweat, screaming,
“GAAAAAAAAAH!!”
“What’s wrong? It’s just a little flick. You’d think I was torturing you or something.”
As I mumbled that, Namgung Hwan, totally freaked out, shouted, “P-Please spare me! I’ll tell you anything you want!!”
“Nope, you need to tell the truth.”
As I poised my finger again for another flick, tears streamed from his eyes. “I’ll tell you everything! Just please…”
“What do you want to know? I’ll tell you whatever it is.”
I stole a glance at Jin So-cheong since he was the one who could get the most precise information about Namgung Hwan’s ‘secrets’ right here. Sensing it too, Jin So-cheong stepped forward and asked,
“Baek Sang-mun, Jin Yang Sect, So Gyeom Sect. From what I know, these three have been annihilated under your name. Is that true?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Namgung Hwan pleaded.
“It’s not true! As the successor of the Namgung Clan, why would I ever do that? Jin So-cheong, please save me…”
“Looks like you really don’t get the situation,” Jin So-cheong said tersely, raising his finger over Namgung Hwan’s heart. Realizing the stupidity of his outburst too late, Namgung Hwan’s eyes widened, but it was too late.
Jin So-cheong unhesitatingly struck the Li trigram on Namgung Hwan’s forehead. Snap!
“…!!”
“How about another little flick?”
Jin So-cheong flicked Namgung Hwan’s forehead once again, though it was just that, in that moment, Namgung Hwan forgot all his happiness and wore a mask of despair. He screamed,
“GAAAAAAAAAAAH…!! AAAAAAH!!”
Then, an unpleasant smell began to waft up from his lower body. Overwhelmed by the shock, he ended up wetting himself. His eyes rolled back in agony, it was clear he was in serious pain. Mo Yong-yeon looked pale as she witnessed the scene and grabbed Jin So-cheong’s sleeve.
“Isn’t this a bit much?”
“Step aside, little lady.”
“But…”
“Don’t you realize we’ve already crossed the line?”
Jin So-cheong replied nonchalantly. Namgung Hwan fainted for a moment from the shock, but Jin So-cheong quickly activated his energy to bring him back to consciousness. Broken and drooling, Namgung Hwan uttered weakly,
“Y-Yeah… those three… I destroyed them… I used the Namgung Clan’s power to wipe them out…”
“…!!”
The expressions of those present turned grim. Even if it had been forced out under torture, Namgung Hwan had just confirmed the worst incident that could negate all his reputation. Jin So-cheong continued relentlessly,
“Why did you destroy them?”
“I-I’ll tell you if you spare my life…?”
“Of course, I’ll spare you. We just want the truth.”
Namgung Hwan chewed on his lips before continuing,
“Their daughters were beautiful.”
“What?”
“The rumor master of Baek Sang-mun and the Jin Yang Sect had pretty daughters, and So Gyeom’s master’s wife was also beautiful, so I had them marked.”
“What the hell…”
In that moment, Jin So-cheong was left speechless, completely incredulous. It wasn’t just me or Mangnyang; even Mo Yong-yeon was the same. Mangnyang, visibly astonished, stepped forward and confronted Namgung Hwan.
“So wait, are you saying you annihilated those sects to get at their women?”
Namgung Hwan hesitated to admit it, but with Jin So-cheong poised to strike again, he blurted out,
“Y-Yeah! That was the reason!”
“So what happened to those marked women?”
“I secretly snuck them into my family’s basement.”
“You locked them up?”
“I— I went to see them whenever I wanted.”
It was obvious what he meant without needing to hear the details. Mo Yong-yeon’s face turned pale as she unconsciously exclaimed,
“What a scumbag!! How could a descendant of the Five Great Families do this…”
With that, Mo Yong-yeon raised the Heavenly Strong Hand from the Mo Yong Clan, emitting a blue glow. She seemed ready to end Namgung Hwan’s life right then and there, but I caught her wrist.
“Wait! You can’t do anything until we hear the full story.”
“It’s disgraceful to think I almost married such a scumbag.”
“That’s why I said wait.”
As I calmed Mo Yong-yeon down, Jin So-cheong continued his cold interrogation.
“Let me ask again: are you telling the truth?”
“Yes…”
“Did you also participate in the destruction of other smaller sects?”
As Jin So-cheong referenced the list of the eight trigrams gained from the Divine Maiden Sect, Namgung Hwan nodded in affirmation.
“Yes.”
“Did the other sects get wiped out for the same reason, that their women were pretty?”
“… Yes.”
Taking a moment to think, Jin So-cheong asked again,
“The Namgung clan is supposedly playing the righteous path and a member of the Five Great Families. What excuse did you have to annihilate those smaller sects?”
Namgung Hwan hesitated before replying,
“It’s simple. We applied pressure, cutting off the funding to those sects while spreading rumors that they were under the White Lotus Sect’s thumb. Once the higher-ups in the Five Great Families caught wind, they quietly negotiated with them to do their dirty work.”
“So the higher-ups were fully aware of it?”
“Yeah…”
“And the ones annihilated weren’t even under the White Lotus Sect?”
“… Right.”
That’s when Mangnyang jumped in with a question.
“The righteous path has more than just the Five Great Families. The Nine Great Sects are around. How could you act so freely?”
“The Five Great Families are the ones closest to the dynamics of the sects. The Nine Great Sects don’t pay attention unless it intrudes on their territory…”
“So it’s close to home. Well, I guess most of those sects that got wiped out were near Anhui Province,” Mangnyang said, piecing it all together.
Namgung Hwan had essentially eliminated innocent lesser sects to satisfy his lust, secretly locking away their women in the basement! During the whole ordeal, the Five Great Families had remained silent, deceived by false information, while the Nine Great Sects simply hadn’t cared as those events had occurred outside their sphere of influence.
The chilling part was that no one had suspected any of this until we clamped down on Namgung Hwan. The revelations only came to light through dark underground intel Jin So-cheong had acquired from the Divine Maiden Sect.
Jin So-cheong stared unwaveringly at Namgung Hwan and asked coldly, “Are the women you collected still in the basement?”
“Yeah.”
“Are they safe?”
Namgung Hwan avoided Jin So-cheong’s gaze, and in response, Jin So-cheong bit down hard on his own teeth.
“You sick creature.”
“W-Why are you doing this, Jin So-cheong?” Namgung Hwan started pleading.
“Isn’t your master, Samjeol Lee Kwang, tight with my father? Haven’t we built a rapport over the years? Why the sudden hostility?”
Jin So-cheong remained silent for a moment before asking again, “Are those women unharmed?”
“That… that’s tough. The things were noisy, so I had no choice. But there are still some alive…”
Crack!
“GAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!”
Jin So-cheong crushed the tip of Namgung Hwan’s finger. The finger, along with the nail, was crushed to bits. Even under normal circumstances, that kind of injury would send a person into delirium, but with the Eight Trigram Seal activated, he was feeling the agonizing pain like needles all over his body.
As Namgung Hwan trembled, drooling and losing control of both his bowel and bladder, I exclaimed in shock, “Oh no! He can’t die!”
“Don’t worry. He won’t die from this.”
Jin So-cheong delivered a powerful strike to Namgung Hwan’s heart, jolting him back into consciousness. Shaking in shock and fear, he began babbling incoherently, “I-I’m begging you… Please…!”
“You might not die, but you’ll surely go insane,” I remarked, looking at him with concern.
Jin So-cheong smiled softly, “That’s why the Eight Trigram Seal is such a neat torture method. By restraining different parts of the body using the trigrams, every time he regains consciousness, it will force his mind awake again. It’s how the principles work, meaning only the strongest mental fortitude can withstand it.”
“I see.”
“Let’s do our best to find out everything we can.”
I was reminded that Jin So-cheong was also a martial artist from the Thunder God Lineage. One could assume he had more expertise in torture than I did. Listening to him speak, one could surmise he had probably been at it for a while even before Namgung Hwan arrived.
The interrogation finally concluded about half an hour later. Namgung Hwan, howling like a madman while losing control of his bowels, looked utterly pitiful. After blankly witnessing this scene, Mangnyang spoke to Mo Yong-yeon.
“Mo Yong-yeon. Now that you know the truth about Namgung Hwan and the Namgung Clan, what are you planning to do?”
“……”
Mo Yong-yeon hesitated before answering, “We’ll use all the power of the Mo Yong Clan to expose the Namgung Clan’s scandal and bury them. To do that, we must rescue those women locked in the basement.”
“Of course. We will handle that too. But we would like some remuneration.”
“You want money? I can give you as much as you need…”
“No, not like that.”
Mangnyang waved his hand dismissively, chuckling, “I mean, we’re going to be collaborating with the Mo Yong Clan moving forward, and it’d be nice if you could lend us a hand then.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll find out if you come up with us to the surface.”
We exited the underground torture room and met a powerful expert from the Shadowless Gate who was guarding the chamber.
“Dharma Guardian! Did everything go well?”
He was someone I was familiar with. While I had been acquiring insights from the Sword Demon, my identity had been that of the Dharma Guardian, naturally granting me immense power within the Shadowless Gate. He likely knew we were torturing someone, but upon recognizing my face, he fell silent.
“Yes, since he made quite a mess himself, could you clean it up a bit?”
He snickered.
“Looks like the Dharma Guardian is also quite skilled at this.”
“If the opportunity arises…”
After a vague reply, I stepped outside and ran into the Sword Demon. The Sword Demon looked surprised when we suddenly appeared with Jin So-cheong and Mo Yong-yeon, but as I explained what happened, he seemed to understand.
When I shared the information we had extracted from Namgung Hwan, he stroked his beard thoughtfully.
“Hmm. I thought it was just rumors, but it looks like there’s truth to it after all?”
“Did you know about it, Sect Leader?”
“In the Black Dao Sect, rumors circulate quietly enough to make it hard to ignore. However, I thought it was just gossip and didn’t take any action.”
As the Sword Demon muttered, he looked at Mo Yong-yeon and said, “Mo Yong-yeon, it seems the main sect will have plenty of opportunities to help each other out in the future.”
“Yes, yes…”
“After going through all this, you must be mentally exhausted. You should rest in your quarters.”
Mo Yong-yeon looked a little frightened and currently passive. It was understandable since she ran into the supreme being of the Shadowless Gate, who ranked at the top, unexpectedly.
After seeing Mo Yong-yeon off, the Sword Demon turned to Jin So-cheong, “It’s good to see you.”
“You didn’t seem that pleased to see me join in,” Jin So-cheong commented.
“My apologies. But my stance hasn’t changed.”
The Sword Demon said it without emotion, and Jin So-cheong simply nodded.
“As it should be. In this Martial Arts World, one’s worth should be proven by themselves.”
“Exactly. I look forward to seeing it.”
After their greetings concluded, I brought the conversation back on a practical note.
“So, we need to rescue the women trapped in the Namgung Clan’s basement. What should we do?”
“Annihilating the Namgung Clan would be the best plan, but there’s a backer involved.”
“A backer?”
The Sword Demon sighed and explained, “Originally, the plan was to ally with the Mo Yong Clan to topple the Five Great Families and build a new order in this district. We had both the justification and power to do so. But due to some information you discovered during your rebirth, we can’t pursue that anymore.”
“…?”
I was puzzled, and Mangnyang clarified, “The ones backing the Five Great Families are none other than Han Baek-ryeong of the Fire Spirit Techniques, who is a Grand Master.”
“Ah…!!”
Then it hit me.
Thinking back, Han Baek-ryeong used her family’s immense financial resources to support the Five Great Families! The King of Zhuge and even the Medicine King, a peak expert in the Five Great Families, serves her as a personal physician! To put it bluntly, you could say the Five Great Families are practically servants of Han Baek-ryeong.
‘If we touch the Five Great Families, it’ll alert Han Baek-ryeong.’
That thought was indeed daunting. The influence of the Fire Spirit Techniques rivaled that of the Wind Spirit Sect, and most importantly, I couldn’t fathom taking on the divine guardian known as Han Baek-ryeong. While liberating the Water Element Divine Sword could provide a chance at equal footing, that wasn’t something I could do right now.
Mangnyang chuckled amusedly and stated, “This could actually work out well.”
“You have a plan?”
“Of course.”
Mangnyang unfurled the Seven Fires, Seven Golds Line.
“After all, Baek Woong has to join the White Lotus Sect to uncover the secrets of the Heavenly Spirit Pill. Since it’s come to this, let’s use this incident to get closer to the Fire Spirit Techniques.”
