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“Something feels off here.”

Hyuncheon and I hurriedly patched up Liu Cheon-ho’s body and infused some internal power to keep his pulse going. Then we headed towards Mangnyang. He was in the sixth-floor chamber, gasping for breath, blood trickling from his lips, drenched in sweat. Clearly, he had exhausted both his physical and mental strength, so I asked with concern, “Are you okay?”

“Huff… huff, I’m fine. Considering the price for using the treasure, this isn’t too bad…”

Coughing up a stream of blood, Mangnyang shook his head. Seemingly regaining his composure, he said, “Finish up the cleanup for me.”

Just as he finished speaking, flames erupted from the ground, starting to sizzle the bodies of the Golden Eagle Guards and the phantoms scattered about. It was such intense heat that it didn’t take long for their corpses to carbonize. Once they turned to ashes, there was little trace left of any former life.

I quickly jumped down, summoning a wind with my internal power to sweep the debris into an unseen alley. Surprisingly, the scene looked unnaturally clean as if a massacre had never occurred. With a little more tidying up later, it would be impossible for pursuers to find any trace.

‘Prohibition of killing, but the dead ones are an exception, huh?’ I thought to myself, feeling quite satisfied about bringing Mangnyang along. Without him, this whole mission might not have even happened, and I would’ve been stuck fighting a 2-on-11 battle, struggling to shake off people’s attention or handle the cleanup of the Golden Eagle Guards’ bodies. I patted the pale Mangnyang on the back, saying, “You are the best strategist.”

How many times would I have had to die without him to solve this mess? At least three or four times, making mistake after mistake. Considering the mental energy I would’ve consumed, Mangnyang was practically a benefactor.

“Eh… not too shabby,” Mangnyang chuckled and said, “Let’s hurry up. There’s a lot I need to hear from this guy.”

We carried Liu Cheon-ho towards the exit of the secret passage outside the village. Disguised as a tattered refugee, we easily avoided attracting attention even amidst the chaos.

After dragging Liu Cheon-ho inside a building, I was ready to wake him up, but I decided to tend to Mangnyang first, as his condition wasn’t great. I turned to Hyuncheon and asked, “Can you use True Energy Healing on Mangnyang? He doesn’t look too well.”

“Of course. Please follow me for a moment.”

Hyuncheon took Mangnyang into a small room. With the Wudang Sect’s True Energy Healing Technique, Mangnyang should recover his strength in no time. Now that I trusted Hyuncheon wouldn’t harm Mangnyang, I felt relieved leaving him in his hands.

Meanwhile, I focused on Liu Cheon-ho sprawled on the floor, infusing him with energy. His internal pathways responded violently as energy crawled into him, making him awaken with the expression of someone being pricked all over by needles.

“Aaaah!!”

“Get a grip. I have a lot of questions for you.”

“You… insane nutjob!” Liu Cheon-ho, probably realizing he was doomed, immediately bit his tongue to avoid interrogation. His lack of hesitation suggested he had received quite the training. However, I watched casually as he struggled to move his jaw, making incoherent sounds.

“……?!”

“I blocked your muscle movements to stop your suicide attempt. If you wanted to do that, you should have done it while you were left alone earlier.”

Hyuncheon was more skilled than me in controlling the human body and repressing blood flow. If he had blocked Liu Cheon-ho’s attempt to take his own life, then there was no way he could bite his tongue. I stared coldly at Liu Cheon-ho and asked, “You’ve trained to resist torture?”

“……”

“I don’t know much about torture techniques, so I’ll just use the one I’m best at.”

With that, I extended a finger towards the center of his upper lip, applying pressure and pouring energy into him. As the energy permeated through, I muttered, “This is the Qian trigram.”

“……?”

“I’m initiating the Eight Trigram Seal.”

He looked utterly confused, probably not knowing what I meant. Unsurprisingly, the Eight Trigram Seal was a secret technique passed down through the Thunder God Lineage alongside the Six Harmonies Total Kill technique, focused solely on sealing the opponent and inflicting pain. Those trained in the Thunder God Lineage could use this technique to extract information without much hassle.

I next placed my finger against his uvula.

“And this is the Dui trigram.”

Sizzle!

“Gah… ugh!!”

Suddenly, he looked electrically shocked and jerked around. As the energy flowed into his internal pathways following the Qian trigram, his nervous system became significantly activated. This also meant that his sensory perception became heightened. I looked into Liu Cheon-ho’s eyes, now filled with doubt, and couldn’t help but smirk.

“I’m just getting started, having only introduced the first two trigrams of the Eight Trigram Seal. Let’s continue.”

Applying the Eight Trigram Seal involves casting layers of internal power across the eight important parts: the head, arms, legs, torso, as well as the brain, heart, lungs, and reproductive organs. As the trigrams rose, the pain intensified, whilst his perception of time began to whirl into chaos. This was far more effective than clumsy physical torture. Eventually, the mental strength would shatter, sending him into oblivion.

However, applying the Eight Trigram Seal required an immense amount of internal strength. To add even the four initial trigrams would take over 80 years of accumulated energy, and as the trigrams progressed, the energy requirement multiplied exponentially. I had never tried to use this on a person since learning it, so I wasn’t entirely sure how far into the trigrams I could go. Even now, I couldn’t guarantee I’d be able to complete all eight.

Yet it would still be effective. Despite having only introduced two trigrams, Liu Cheon-ho had taken on an expression as if all joy had been erased from his life. Usually, one would need to lash someone with a whip for about a hundred strokes to elicit such a reaction.

By now, he was barely holding on, but as my finger moved and brushed over his heart, he finally broke.

“This is the Li trigram.”

With tears streaming down his face, he cried out, “Wait! Hold on a second!”

“What is it?”

“What do you want to know? Will you let me live if I tell you?”

Suddenly, Liu Cheon-ho began to thrash and desperately pleaded. With the overwhelming sensations from the Eight Trigram Seal, he realized he couldn’t withstand the pressure of his own mental energy. I squatted down, gazing at him coldly.

“What’s the point of living? You’ve already lost an arm and a leg. You can’t live as a martial artist or even a normal human. Still want to survive?”

“Ugh… fine. I’ll do anything. Please, just save me. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“………”

“Please…”

The sight of Liu Cheon-ho crying and squirming on the floor was undeniably pathetic. Normally, one would feel a twinge of compassion at such desperate pleas. However, I couldn’t feel even a shred of sympathy looking at him.

His suffering was blurred with the image of countless others being slaughtered in the chaos. Over thousands must have writhen in agony. The one who sought their demise begging for his life was meaningless.

“I was just following orders!” he cried out. “Please… spare me!”

“Orders? You mean the Lord of the Golden Eagle Guard?”

“Y-yeah.”

“And what about higher-ups?”

“I don’t know. I’m just a lowly soldier who listens to commands from above. The Vice Leader gives the direct orders.”

The Golden Eagle Guard was a ridiculous organization. An elite expert who could go toe-to-toe with Wudang Sect elders was calling himself lowly. The Vice Leader or the Lord could very well be peerless masters at the top of the martial world.

After pondering for a moment, I asked, “Do you have a family?”

“… Yes.”

“Where do they live?”

“……”

Liu Cheon-ho hesitated, unable to respond. Despite saying he would tell me anything, the safety of his family held him back. I pressed a finger on the Eight Trigram Seal once again, enhancing his sensations. He writhed and screamed in pain.

“Aaaah! Aaaah, no!!!”

I didn’t know exactly what kind of pain he was in. As the interrogator, it’s not something I could experience. But judging by his eyes rolling back and limbs twitching like a willow, I could assume it was beyond that experienced by any ordinary torturer. I loosened the seal and asked, “Now speak.”

“Ugh… Ho-kyung… in Haojing!”

“Shaanxi Province, huh? Not too far.”

I crossed my arms and continued, “If the mission target, your family living in Ho-kyung, was marked as a target, what would you do?”

“I-I would have moved them beforehand.”

“What about other innocents living there?”

“……”

“So you’re saying they’re expendable?”

Just as I raised my hand as if to strike him, he shrieked in terror, “I can’t help it! I can’t disobey orders from above! The Golden Eagle Guard demands absolute obedience!”

“A very convenient excuse. Just one word and it’s all over for the thousands who went mad and died.”

Liu Cheon-ho spoke despairingly. That was likely his candid sentiment.

“Ugh… I don’t know who you are, but this is foolish. The Golden Eagle Guard operates far stronger than you think. Even if the Nine Great Sects provided protection, you wouldn’t escape death.”

“I know. I also know that you are the captain of ten men.”

“……!!”

His eyes widened. What I just stated was literally the organizational structure and a secret of the Golden Eagle Guard. I stared at him blankly.

“No need to be surprised. From now on, you have to reveal everything about the Golden Eagle Guard’s structure, secrets, hideouts, objectives, and the martial arts of the higher-ups.”

By dropping this fact, I meant to maintain control so he wouldn’t dare lie.

“If I tell you that, will you let me go?”

“Of course.”

Liu Cheon-ho’s eyes rolled around wildly as he urgently began to spill information. I listened calmly and organized the details, particularly intrigued by the relations between the Golden Eagle Guard and other organizations.

After about a meal’s time listening to him, I asked, “So, are you saying this was the ‘first attempt’?”

“As far as I know, yes…”

Thank goodness. According to Liu Cheon-ho, this was the first time the Sorcerers and Golden Eagle Guards acted together to carry out a massacre. In other words, there weren’t any previous villages that had been sacrificed. Thus, I had thwarted the possibility of the demon beasts growing stronger.

I glanced at Mangnyang. He had an expression as if he expected this. Given the rationale I provided, it made sense for him to be suspicious, but it seemed like he might have considered the possibility from the beginning.

“So when did the Sorcerer decode the nameless disciple’s book?”

“I believe about a year ago… that’s when the initial plan began, and the Golden Eagle Guard forces began special training.”

A year ago. I repeated those words in my head and asked, “You should be able to use special incantations for brainwashing, right? How is that possible?”

“What do you mean…”

“……”

Crackle!

“Aaaaagh! Ah, I get it! The ten leaders, including myself, were brainwashed through the Sorcerer’s incantations!”

Just as I had expected. This wasn’t the usual type of sorcery. It resembled the capabilities of the otherworld. They must have guided the new Golden Eagle Guards towards brainwashing through the commands bestowed upon the captain.

“How did they learn it? That thing can’t even speak human language.”

“While it can’t speak, it has the ability to transmit heart language to Sorcerers. I believe it conveyed higher-level sorcery to the Vice Leader or the Lord.”

“Higher-level sorcery? Is that also incantation?”

“I don’t know. But after that, the Vice Leader and Lord became incredibly strong.”

“Stronger, you say? To what extent?”

Liu Cheon-ho hesitated before speaking, “Originally, the Golden Eagle Guard and the Duke of Guanzhong had almost equal martial arts prowess. Both had reached the peak mastery level in the martial world, yet since a year ago, the power dynamics shifted. The Lord has overwhelmingly suppressed Duke Guanzhong, and after that, the Golden Eagle Guard’s activities became reliant on the Duke for intelligence support.”

“……!!”

I couldn’t help but let out a gasp at this unexpected information. If what he said was true, then the top ranks of the Golden Eagle Guard and Duke Guanzhong once shared equally powerful martial arts. But if the Lord could ‘overwhelmingly’ suppress Duke Guanzhong, then that must mean he was a top-tier master who surpassed the peak level. The only individual I could think of that I knew with such prowess would be Samjeol Lee Kwang.

If I wanted to eradicate the Golden Eagle Guard, I would first need to take down the Lord. After mulling over this, I questioned Liu Cheon-ho, “If the Taoist Master and I joined forces against the Lord, what sort of odds would we have?”

“……”

“Answer me.”

Under coercion, Liu Cheon-ho replied, “You two are great fighters, exceptionally rare upper-level peak experts, but even if you join forces, you wouldn’t be able to defeat the Lord. His strength surpasses humanity.”

“Is that so.”

With Liu Cheon-ho disclosing his family details, it didn’t seem likely he’d be fibbing. The Lord’s power appeared to be genuinely formidable.

“Then is this Lord the strongest in the Imperial Palace?”

“Without a doubt. This plan was premised on the assumption that all forces of the martial world would encircle us, and with the Lord around, it was calculated we could overcome the opposition with ease.”

“Hmm.”

“Is that enough? Release me!!”

But then, I heard a voice behind me.

“Not yet.”

I turned around to see Mangnyang and Hyuncheon coming towards me. Mangnyang looked better than before, possibly because he had undergone some careful qi treatment. He wasn’t coughing anymore.

Pointing at Liu Cheon-ho, Mangnyang said, “Ask him the same thing all over again.”

“……!!”

Liu Cheon-ho’s face clouded with despair. I glanced at Mangnyang, who explained the rationale.

“That guy’s expression suggests he just needs to get through this moment. While what he told you isn’t entirely false, he likely mixed in false information or omitted certain details for self-preservation. We must question him again until he truly shares the honest details.”

“He might die from that.”

“You can manage it well. I’ll watch over him, so don’t hold back.”

It seemed Mangnyang could discern a person’s sincerity. I glanced at Hyuncheon, who turned away and said, “You understand this is for the sake of martial justice.”

Hearing that, I felt much more at ease. I had felt uneasy about whether a detached Taoist master could condone such torture, but it seemed Hyuncheon was aware of the gravity of the situation and was attempting to gather as much information as possible to protect himself and his disciples. It appeared he was willing to accept the reality if absolutely necessary.

“Then it’s settled. I’ll do my best to adjust so he doesn’t die.”

As I placed my finger for the Eight Trigram Seal once more, Liu Cheon-ho screamed in agitation, “Stop it!!!”

The interrogation didn’t conclude until two meal times had passed.

“Heh… hehe…”

Liu Cheon-ho sat there on the chair, drooling and having lost control of himself due to pain and distress, so it was far better to keep him seated rather than lying flat. The repeated torture had pushed him to a near mental breaking point. It was astounding how one could decay a person through sheer pain without physical destruction.

Mangnyang had observed the entire torture process and caught his lies or omissions, carefully pricking at them. Thus, I was now confident that the information we had acquired was mostly truthful.

Mangnyang turned to Hyuncheon and said, “It’s a good thing my disciples didn’t arrive on time. If they had, it would’ve been difficult to extract ourselves.”

“What should I do then?”

“You should return to Taejeong Temple immediately and meet with your disciples. And find an excuse to go and deal with some bandits. You might face backlash, but it would be better than getting tangled up needlessly with the Golden Eagle Guard.”

“I’ll do just that.”

Hyuncheon appeared somewhat unsettled, perhaps because he had unexpectedly uncovered such immense truths. He had only thought the heretical sect was the main threat, but he probably never expected that the Golden Eagle Guard would be aiding the Sorcerers. Now his concern was to divert any attention from the Golden Eagle Guard, ensuring no unnecessary arrows fell towards Wudang Sect.

I figured Hyuncheon might extricate himself from this whole ordeal without much danger. They might suspect him a little, but given his significance in the martial world and the fact that the Golden Eagle Guard wasn’t acting openly, they wouldn’t dare provoke him without cause.

Hyuncheon turned to me and asked, “What are your thoughts?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve wiped out the Golden Eagle Guard and the Sorcerer, the source of evil. Still, do you intend to carry on fighting against the Golden Eagle Guard?”

He spoke as if he were concerned for me.

I shook my head as if it were a given. “I have no intention of fighting them again. Going against the Golden Eagle Guard is way too risky. I’m planning to erase all traces and go into hiding.”

“I see.”

“We’ll handle the rest. You should hurry on with your tasks.”

“Understood.”

With a whoosh, Hyuncheon disappeared into thin air. After confirming he had completely left, Mangnyang turned to me.

“That was a lie, wasn’t it? You don’t seem inclined to stop here.”

“……”

Swoosh!

Without a word, I swung my hand and decapitated Liu Cheon-ho. Hardly any blood flowed as his head slid off cleanly. I had never intended to spare him from the start. I wiped the blood off my hands with a cloth and said, “Of course not. With the situation as it is, I have to ensure that the Golden Eagle Guard is utterly crippled, enough that they’ll stay down for a decade. If their operational units are decimated, there’s nothing even the Emperor can do about it.”

That would be the safer route. If I were to evade them clumsily, I might risk strengthening their forces. Just like the demon beasts growing stronger, the Imperial Family could consistently make better choices. Before that happened, I intended to cause such a ruckus that they wouldn’t even think to pursue me.

And if there’s a time to do so, it’s right now while they’re in disarray investigating what just happened. With one unit of the Golden Eagle Guard obliterated and their sorcerer killed, the Golden Eagle Guard would find it challenging to operate calmly for a while. I had to gather as much information as possible during this window to prepare a counterattack.

“Why do you dislike hiding?”

“It’s not about liking or disliking; it’s just that I can’t afford to. The traces we left today aren’t completely erased. The Golden Eagle Guard will come hunting for me sooner or later.”

Mangnyang laughed bitterly. “Your ability to judge the situation has improved through your battles. You’re right.”

“What about you?”

“Of course, I’ll follow you, Baek Woong. We’re in the same boat now.”

With that, Mangnyang’s eyes gleamed with determination. “They say to take advantage of an opportunity when the iron is hot. If you’ve made your resolve, we should crush the Golden Eagle Guard swiftly.”

“What do you mean?”

Then Mangnyang’s words pointed towards our next destination.

“Let’s seek the help of my master residing in Luoyang.”

His master, the [True] Master Mangnyang! Heading to seek assistance from the greatest sorcerer in the Central Plains, a figure whom even the elders of the Wudang Sect look up to with reverence.

 

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