Chapter 198

Woo Seong Dojang and the other Daoists thought Sangjin Jin-in had gone easy on Pyo Wol, but Woo Pyeong Dojang, who had watched up close, knew for certain that was not the case.

It was because he had read the perplexed emotion that arose in Sangjin Jin-in’s eyes.

Sangjin Jin-in’s martial arts were beyond doubt.

He possessed a formidable martial prowess, worthy of being called the greatest sword of the Wudang Sect. But even with powerful martial arts, one could not handle every matter as one wished.

Pyo Wol was a cunning serpent whose inner thoughts were impossible to fathom.

Although he was much younger than Sangjin Jin-in, his experience in the Jianghu was far superior. On top of that, he had traversed paths of death that others could not dare to imagine.

His eye for reading the flow of events and his nerve were second to none.

He had read the situation precisely and responded to Sangjin Jin-in. He knew that Sangjin Jin-in could never do anything to him.

The one at a disadvantage was the Wudang Sect, not Pyo Wol.

Above all, Pyo Wol was not the least bit intimidated by Sangjin Jin-in.

Though it was unknown to what extent his true martial arts reached, it meant he was confident he would not be pushed back even against Sangjin Jin-in.

‘I must never let him and Martial Uncle clash.’

Woo Pyeong Dojang felt anew the importance of his role.

He spoke to Pyo Wol to change the heavy atmosphere.

“So, did you have any success?”

In an instant, Woo Seong Dojang and the Daoists all looked at Pyo Wol.

He had brought Lee Soyeol’s body, and because of that, even Sangjin Jin-in had stepped in, ruining the mood. If Pyo Wol were to say he had no results, it felt like a riot would break out on the spot.

Pyo Wol opened his mouth.

“I found the cause of death.”

“Is, is that true?”

“Yes! I found the cause of death, but I couldn’t identify the culprit.”

“That alone is something. Since you say culprit, was it a homicide?”

“That’s right! He was murdered.”

“Good heavens!”

Woo Pyeong Dojang’s eyes widened.

It was the same for the others.

“Is that really true? Do you have proof?”

Woo Seong Dojang pressed him.

Pyo Wol held out the silver needles wrapped in a handkerchief to Woo Pyeong Dojang.

“What is this?”

“Silver needles. They were embedded in the root of Do-dong’s tongue.”

Woo Pyeong Dojang carefully unfolded the handkerchief. A silver needle, so thin it was indistinguishable to the naked eye, became visible.

“This was embedded in So-yeol’s tongue? Can you kill a person with this?”

“It’s possible!”

“Really?”

“I could do it. So someone else probably can too.”

“I see! You’ve worked hard.”

Woo Pyeong Dojang carefully wrapped the silver needles in the handkerchief.

Now that Pyo Wol had found evidence of homicide, he had to quickly inform the Sect Master and the Elders. But there was something he had to do before that.

He looked at Woo Seong Dojang and the Wudang Sect Daoists and said.

“You have all seen the evidence, so do not persecute him any longer. Anyone who persecutes him, I will not forgive.”

“Senior Martial Brother!”

“Woo-sung, I know how you feel, but if you cross the line any further, I will not forgive you. Do you understand?”

“I… understand.”

Woo Seong Dojang answered, bowing his head.

Having seen the evidence of Lee Soyeol’s murder before his own eyes, he had nothing more to say. It was the same for the other Daoists.

Pyo Wol had found in less than half a day the evidence they could not find no matter how much they looked.

In the end, Woo Pyeong Dojang’s decision to bring him here was the right one.

To deny Pyo Wol any further would only make them look pathetic.

＊＊＊

When Pyo Wol and Soma returned, the Clear Stream Palace was as quiet as a dead mouse.

Most of the people had gone outside to look around the Wudang Sect’s interior.

Today was the day the Wudang Sect opened its mountain gates.

Outside the gates, a sea of people had already formed. Once they started to enter, the opportunity to leisurely tour the Wudang Sect would surely not come again.

Most of the people had left the Clear Stream Palace to see the Wudang Sect before that happened.

Thanks to that, Pyo Wol and Soma could rest quietly.

Pyo Wol said to Soma.

“Get some rest.”

“What about you, hyung?”

“I have something to sort out.”

“Okay, hyung-ah!”

Soma nodded.

He quickly climbed to the top of the tallest tree.

Crouched on a branch with the Gongpo Sword in his arms, his figure gazing at the Wudang Sect was reminiscent of a crow.

Pyo Wol watched Soma for a moment, then went into his room.

Sitting in a chair, the first thing he did was recall the contents of the books he had read inside the Scripture Depository.

It would be nearly impossible to get another chance to enter the Scripture Depository.

He had to organize his thoughts while the memories were still vivid.

The books Pyo Wol had focused on reading in the Scripture Depository were all those that chronicled the trends and history of the Jianghu after the two Great Wars.

The two Great Wars had greatly changed the Jianghu.

The powers that dominated the Jianghu before the first Great War were the traditional powerhouses like the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Noble Families.

They owned vast lands and fields, and based on this, they reaped enormous yields.

They also produced and supported numerous lay disciples.

The lay disciples who received their support grew frighteningly. They created profit-making organizations like escort agencies, trading companies, and Daoist temples, and sent a portion of the profits earned there back to their martial sects.

The Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Noble Families supported their lay disciples, and the grown lay disciples in turn repaid their martial sects, their strong bond continuing for hundreds of years, creating a solid iron fortress that no one could breach.

If the Great Blood War had not occurred, their iron fortress would never have been broken.

The first Martial World War, the Great Blood War, completely shook the existing order that had been firmly maintained until then.

The Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Noble Families, which had seemed eternally impregnable, were either annihilated or their power greatly diminished in the turmoil of war.

They suffered a fatal blow from which recovery in a short time was impossible, and a long time was needed to recover.

In the end, the surviving sects went closed-off, and the power that rose to take advantage of that time was the Ten Hegemons.

The Ten Hegemons grew with a terrifying momentum and dominated the entire Jianghu.

In a short period, they built a fortress that no one could approach. Their momentum, which divided the Jianghu into ten, was so great that no one dared to even think of challenging them.

But their glory, which seemed eternal, came to an end with the outbreak of the Great Demonic War.

The Great Demonic War, started by the Divine Demon Association, devastated the entire Jianghu.

If a remarkable martial artist named Lee Gwak had not appeared to stop the Divine Demon Association, the Jianghu would have already fallen into their hands.

A significant number of the Ten Hegemons were annihilated or suffered fatal damage.

If the Shaolin Temple, Wudang Sect, and Mount Hua Sect, which had been closed-off, had not stepped forward, even the surviving Ten Hegemons would not have escaped annihilation.

It was that perilous of a fight.

Countless people died, and an innumerable number of sects collapsed.

On the land of the Jianghu, so thoroughly destroyed, the current sects rose again.

The Two Powerhouses, the Three Clans, the Three Hegemons, the Three Manors.

The Two Powerhouses of the Radiant Martial Gate and the Heavenly Martial Fortress, which rose to prominence through the Great Demonic War.

The Three Clans, centered around the Shaolin Temple, Mount Hua Sect, and Wudang Sect, which were members of the Nine Great Sects.

The Three Hegemons, centered around Dragon Sky Valley, the Swordless Union, and the Thousand Water Society, which were members of the Ten Hegemons.

Finally, the Three Manors, consisting of the New Moon Manor, the Demon Sword Manor, and the Righteous Sword Manor, which had rapidly grown by expanding their power through the turmoil of war.

In a way, it was a perfect harmony of the old and the new.

These eleven sects had either collapsed or rebounded through the turmoil of war.

What Pyo Wol looked at with interest was the flow of hegemony in the Jianghu.

A series of events had brought down the existing powers of the Jianghu and brought new forces to the fore.

The Jianghu had changed greatly and had now established a new order.

It was unknown how long the current Jianghu, dominated by the Two Powerhouses, Three Clans, Three Hegemons, and Three Manors, would last, but there seemed to be no other force threatening their stronghold.

The deceased Jin Geum-woo had mentioned the Nine Dragons.

A dragon with nine heads, or nine dragons.

Not a single book mentioned them.

It would have been nice if there was even a small clue, but there was nothing of the sort.

If it was an organization that Jin Geum-woo would risk his life to pursue, it must have been accumulating power for quite a long time. If so, it should have made a name for itself at least once or twice in the annals of history, but there was nothing of the kind.

At this point, one might wonder if Jin Geum-woo had been mistaken about something. But Pyo Wol thought that a martial artist of Jin Geum-woo’s caliber would not have risked everything to chase the Nine Dragons because of a misunderstanding.

He must have been certain of something to have pursued the Nine Dragons. And he had probably come quite close to the Nine Dragons’ true nature.

If they hadn’t felt threatened, there would have been no reason to go to the trouble of killing Jin Geum-woo.

Pyo Wol organized his thoughts.

“At the very least, the Nine Dragons is clearly a group that did not exist before the two Martial World Wars. If it had existed before the Martial World Wars, its name would have surely been mentioned in some way at least once.”

One of the things Pyo Wol had paid most attention to while reading the books in the Scripture Depository was the term Nine Dragons. But the term Nine Dragons did not appear in any book.

That meant that at the time the two Martial World Wars occurred, the Nine Dragons did not exist.

Not appearing even when the Jianghu was being devastated meant they did not exist.

“Perhaps they are a force that built up their power through the two Martial World Wars. Just like the Three Manors, they grew in size by feeding on war as nourishment.”

The second thing to note was the change in hegemony in the Jianghu.

What would people who saw the traditional powers of the Jianghu, the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Noble Families, fall through the Great Demonic War, and the Ten Hegemons collapse in the Great Blood War, have thought? Pyo Wol thought from their perspective.

There might have been someone who thought that revealing themselves was dangerous.

Pyo Wol himself was someone who thought that revealing oneself in the Jianghu had more disadvantages than advantages, so he could understand.

This tendency was especially common among those who had amassed great wealth in a short period. If so, it was possible that someone who had secured enormous interests through the war had thoroughly hidden their identity to protect themselves.

The third thing Pyo Wol focused on was the term ‘Nine Dragons’ itself.

A name itself contains an identity.

This tendency was particularly strong among the sects of the Jianghu.

The sect called Radiant Martial Gate, created by Lee Gwak, was literally a gathering of people mad about martial arts.

Lee Gwak himself was a man mad about martial arts, a great master who had created something from nothing, so his followers also had such a disposition.

In this way, the name of a sect in itself told what kind of disposition they had, and what direction they pursued.

‘Nine Dragons, perhaps they are a coalition of different forces. Or perhaps different martial artists have joined forces.’

Pyo Wol frowned slightly.

Even if his hypothesis was somewhat close to the truth, it was a problem.

Because that would mean the birth of a type of sect, or coalition, that had never before appeared in the history of the Jianghu.

Until now, the enemies of the Jianghu had a clear form.

The Demonic Cult, the Divine Demon Association.

They had enough power to sway the Jianghu, but their bases and personnel were known. That made it easier to defend against them. But the Nine Dragons were different.

It was unknown for what purpose they were created, but their true nature and members were all thoroughly hidden.

Dealing with such an enemy is never easy.

It was unknown if Jin Geum-woo knew this and pursued them, but it was clear that he had come close to the true nature of the Nine Dragons.

“Perhaps they are structured as a thorough cell system. The lower-level members probably don’t even know where they belong.”

Pyo Wol thought his guess was most likely correct.

When an organization becomes bloated, information leaks are bound to happen. Because no matter how much you crack down, there will always be people who talk.

The fact that almost no one knew about the Nine Dragons yet meant that they had thoroughly controlled their subordinate organizations, and the most efficient way to control mouths was to manage them in a cell system.

If Pyo Wol were in their shoes, he would have created and managed it in a cell system.

To leave absolutely no trace, like a ghost.

Jin Geum-woo had been chasing a ghost, in a sense.

Existing, but having no substance…

“But why did you chase them? For what reason…”

Pyo Wol was genuinely curious about the reason. But there was no one in this world who could answer him.

Uncovering that reason was now his responsibility.

“You left me with nothing but trouble in many ways.”

Pyo Wol thought of the man who could never come again.

The man who was as strong as an iron tower and had a will of steel.

Pyo Wol shook his head slightly and approached the window.

The boisterous sounds of people could be heard from outside.

Pyo Wol opened the window wide. The entire scenery of the Wudang Sect came into view at once.

Martial artists, who had not been seen until morning, were entering the Wudang Sect.

The Wudang Sect had finally opened its mountain gates and was accepting outsiders.

It seemed as if a new wind was blowing into the Wudang Sect, which had been stagnant until now.