FVN Chapter 365 : Truth (5)
Chapter 365 : Truth (5)
"YOU BASTARD!!"The thunderous roar came from somewhere behind him, and the Grand Eunuch didn't even dare look back. He just kept his legs moving as fast as he could.
And thankfully, he was fast enough.
The Eastern Depot specialized in tracking and murder, so its members had built up a decent foundation in lightness skill.
Even though he was completely outmatched in sword combat, his lightness skill was decent enough for him not to get caught by Dokyo Ryong. The nightmare of getting another close combat with the madman behind him would never come to pass as long as their distance isn’t getting any closer.
"I will never let you go!!"
Dokgo Ryong's throat must've been made of iron or something, because the man chasing him just wouldn't stop screaming.
"Hah... hah..."
When was the last time he'd run himself this ragged?
After being in the Realm of Truth for so long, Grand Eunuch Cha had almost forgotten what it felt like for his mouth to taste like rust, but he was very much remembering now. He'd been pushing his lightness skill for hours on end. It wasn't just a matter of physical fatigue or burning muscles anymore. The massive reserves of internal energy that had felt virtually limitless ever since he broke through to the Realm of Truth were now dangerously close to running dry.
"You are not leaving this place alive!!"
Grand Eunuch Cha drowned out the roar behind him and kept running.
Suddenly, the Grand Eunuch's deeply exhausted eyes burst wide open in excitement,
There was a horse.
There was a single horse grazing on the grassland.
It was unknown whether it was a horse that some tribe had lost due to a mistake, or if it was one of the horses of the nomads they had killed that was wandering around this vicinity.
Actually, the Grand Eunuch didn't have the luxury of giving a fuck where it came from.
"Hah... hah..."
He launched himself at the horse and landed on its back.
"!!"
The horse bucked and thrashed in protest, but Grand Eunuch Cha pushed his internal energy through his grip and held on with everything he had until it finally surrendered.
"Go!!"
He spurred it forward, and the horse took off in the direction he intended.
Only then did he finally let himself glance back, and what he saw made his stomach drop.
Dokgo Ryong was right on his heels.
The horse's tantrum had cost him the gap he'd built up.
“I will chop off all your limbs!!”
Dokgo Ryong bellowed and swung his massive sword, and the Force Qi that erupted from the blade came screaming toward Cha and the horse beneath him.
"Damn it!!"
Grand Eunuch Cha dug into his dantian and ripped out whatever internal energy he had left to fire back a burst of his own.
A deafening explosion rocked the plains, and the terrified horse bolted forward with an explosive burst of speed.
Desperate to slaughter both the horse and its rider, Dokgo Ryong fiercely swung his greatsword again and again. He knew full well he would be dead meat the second his horse collapsed, so Grand Eunuch Cha braced through the damage and swung back again and again, not stopping even as the internal backlash tore through his insides.
"Ugh..."
Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. His organs felt like they'd been put in a bag and shaken. But he kept countering Dokgo Ryong’s slashes.
And after what felt like forever, the gap between them started to widen again.
Dokgo Ryong had burned through his own internal energy after firing off force blasts while keeping up his lightness skill at the same time.
"YOU DICKLESS DOG!!"
Even as he fell behind, Dokgo Ryong's thunderous roars shook the heavens, prompting the half-dead Grand Eunuch to let out a weak, bloody sigh of relief.
Still, some part of him refused to fully calm down, and he kept driving the horse until Dokgo Ryong vanished completely from sight.
"Hah. Hah."
When he saw that, he finally pulled the horse to a stop and settled into breathing exercises to regulate his energy. He spent a significant amount of time sitting there, completely absorbed in his meditation when a sudden shout jolted him awake with terror.
"NOT EVEN HELL WILL KEEP YOU SAFE, YOU DICKLESS BASTARD!!!”
Dokgo Ryong's roaring voice had returned.
Due to the shock he received during his meditation, Grand Eunuch Cha had nearly fallen into Qi Deviation. He barely managed to stabilize his internal energy and turned his head toward the source of the shout and saw Dokgo Ryong come barreling at him with his horse.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s warriors were also with him too. They had finished off the eunuchs that the Grand Eunuch Cha had left behind and joined up with Dokgo Ryong on horseback.
Grand Eunuch Cha hauled himself back onto his horse and fled southeast.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!!!"
It was a miserable nightmare of a journey.
After galloping for another solid half-day, the Grand Eunuch's stolen horse simply gave out from sheer exhaustion, forcing him to abandon the mount and rely on his own lightness skill once again. For better or worse, the Demonic Cult members' horses were just as spent, so it evened out.
After that, the chase continued on two legs.
For a full day, both sides pushed their lightness skills to the limit.
The remaining Demonic Cult members fell further and further behind until they were completely out of sight. But as long as Dokgo Ryong kept coming, stopping wasn't an option.
Once their internal energy reserves were completely sucked dry, the superhuman chase devolved into a pathetic footrace.
They just kept the chase without eating any food or getting any sleep.
His mind was starting to drift in and out, but even through the haze, those bloodthirsty roars still rang in his head.
"YOU WON’T ESCAPE MY HANDS!”
At this point, any thoughts about his mission or earning the Supreme Eunuch’s trust had long since been wiped from his head. The only thing that kept Grand Eunuch Cha from stopping was that single-minded desire to get away from Dokgo Ryong and survive.
Blood and dirt caked his body, but as if that wasn’t enough, he was forced to run even as he shat and pissed himself.
He forced himself to run like a dead man walking.
And after stumbling along on the edge of death for what felt like forever, something familiar appeared in the distance ahead.
"Hah. Hah."
It was like catching a glimpse of the pearly gates of heaven itself for him. The Grand Eunuch blindly sprinted toward the distant walls.
"YOU SCUM!!!”
Dokgo Ryong roared and moved to follow, but then he spotted what was ahead and stopped dead.
Ahead was a heavily fortified military stronghold built by the Imperial Army to repel nomadic invasions.
He let out a rough snort through his nose.
"Hmph."
Dokgo Ryong had pushed his own body far beyond its limits to chase the slippery eunuch down.
His dantian was completely void of internal energy and his limbs weren't responding properly.
It might be different if he were in a perfectly fine physical condition, but Dokgo Ryong knew very well that charging in there right now was no different from suicide.
Although his naturally explosive temper and decades of side effect from practicing his Demonic Art made him act like a raging lunatic, he was far from stupid.
He was no longer a man ruled by his own Demonic Art.
'I'd gladly lay down my life for the Divine Cult. But dying in there right now would be stupid and pointless.’
He stopped walking. And then let out a final roar with everything he had left in him.
“I DON’T FUCKING CARE HOW LONG IT TAKES! MARK MY WORDS, YOU DICKLESS DOG OF THE IMPERIAL FAMILY! NO MATTER WHEN AND WHERE, MY SWORD WILL REACH YOUR NECK! SO YOU BETTER KEEP THAT NECK OF YOURS CLEAN UNTIL THEN!!!”
Hearing that roar, the Grand Eunuch Cha who was limping mindlessly toward the safety of the walls convulsed in terror.
***
Meanwhile, a group was making its way into Lanzhou.
Most of them, men and women alike, had powerfully built frames.
Almost every single one of them, men and women alike, boasted incredibly large, muscular physiques.
These were the elites of the Hwangbo Family of Shandong.
Hwangbo Ak, the Family Head of the Hwangbo Family, along with his two daughters, scanned on Lanzhou, which they hadn't visited in nearly a year, and made their way toward the Maitreya Luminous Cult's scripture hall.
When they arrived, the Cult's followers were already waiting to guide them inside.
"Family Head. The Incarnation of Maitreya awaits you."
Taking only Hwangbo Yeon and Hwangbo Se-hui with him, Hwangbo Ak followed the guides deep into a private room that had been prepared separately.
Inside, Beggar King and Little Tiger Beggar were already seated.
Beside them were Qingcheng’s Sect Leader and Taoist Master Cheongmok. And then there were Wudang’s Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal and Taoist Un-baek.
Since the Hwangbo Family was seated in Shandong, the other leaders had already arrived in Lanzhou for a time and had been waiting for them to complete the summit.
"I extend my deepest gratitude to all of you for making this journey."
Seeing that every key figure was finally present, Il-mok cupped his fists and respectfully greeted the room.
"What was the reason for calling us all together like this? Have you found some leads on the Blood Cult?"
It was the Qingcheng Sect Leader who spoke first.
His sect had spent nearly a year chasing down the Maitreya Luminous Cult's leads in search of the Blood Cult's trail, and they'd come up with nothing concrete. The other factions were in the same boat, and that was written plainly on everyone's faces as they looked at Il-mok.
"To speak the truth, our Maitreya Luminous Cult has also failed to uncover any direct traces of the Blood Cult. But during our pursuit, we stumbled upon traces of something far worse."
“What do you mean by something worse than the Blood Cult?"
"Good heavens, don't tell me you've found traces of the Demonic Cult?"
Their reactions were sharp, but Il-mok remained calm and continued.
"First, as I have stated before, our Maitreya Cult firmly believes that the Blood Cult deliberately faked their own annihilation as a deceptive tactic. But that is precisely where our suspicions began. Why would they commit that massacre in Guizhou Province of all things if they were going into hiding?"
A few leaders tilted their heads in confusion, while others nodded slowly as they grasped the contradiction.
"Well, it's the Blood Cult. Isn't massacring people for their rituals and sorceries just what they do?" Hwangbo Ak put it into words on behalf of the group.
Most martial artists had thought the same thing, which was exactly why no one had questioned it at the time. The Blood Cult committing a massacre was horrifying, but it certainly wasn't out of character for them.
"If you recall the political climate of the Central Plains back then, their actions make zero sense for them. Although the individuals gathered here were not like that, there was certainly more than one group using the Blood Cult as a justification to engage in territory disputes at that time, was there not?”
A few people grimaced at those words while others clicked their tongues in disgust. Their disgust wasn't directed at Il-mok, but rather at the greedy factions who had behaved so disgracefully during a crisis.
"They had the perfect opportunity to crush the martial world while it was torn apart by internal conflicts. Instead, they abandon such a perfect opportunity just to carry out a massacre, so that means the Blood Cult must have gained something massive in return. Something like finishing the Jiangshi they couldn't complete in the Sichuan massacre, for example, or another bloody ritual. If so, here is my question. Why then are they still hiding themselves after going to all that trouble to complete it?"
Only then did everyone in the room realize that something was amiss.
Il-mok kept going.
"So we tried thinking about it in reverse. What if the massacre wasn't the Blood Cult's doing at all, but a third party? With that in mind, we investigated the area around Guizhou Province where the slaughter had taken place, and we found traces of a certain faction."
The eyes of every martial master in the room gleamed sharply as they hung onto Il-mok's word.
"Who were they?"
"At first, we weren't sure either. But as we followed the trail, we eventually came face to face with them. They were eunuchs."
"The Eastern Depot!!"
Several people shot to their feet at the word 'eunuchs.'
Il-mok nodded, and Beggar King asked. "Why in the world would the Eastern Depot orchestrate like that?"
Not just the Beggar King, others also wore expressions caught somewhere between confusion and disbelief.
"We also found their motives completely baffling, which is why we relentlessly continued to track the Eastern Depot's movements. While several of our people tragically lost their lives during the pursuit, we managed to secure incredibly vital intelligence."
Everyone kept their mouth shut at that, but their silence was no different from telling Il-mok to get to the point.
Il-mok then reached into his robes to place a series of letters on the table.
These were the very same letters the Dark Shadow Pavilion had spilled blood to intercept from the Eastern Depot.
"These letters were recovered through direct confrontations with the Eastern Depot. By cross-referencing these documents with the interrogations of a few eunuchs we were lucky enough to capture alive, we managed to decode their cipher to a certain extent."
Finally, Il-mok placed the letter that Seo Wan-pyeong had barely managed to obtain onto the table.
"And this one was written by Alliance Leader Cheok Pae-myeong himself. If any of you are familiar with the Alliance Leader's calligraphy, you're welcome to verify it."
The mention of the Alliance Head sent another wave of shock through the room.
In the midst of that, the Beggar King stepped forward and read through Cheok Pae-myeong's letter.
"The content itself is nothing remarkable, but the handwriting is virtually identical to the Alliance Leader's."
"We obtained this letter while tracking the Eastern Depot’s eunuchs. Since we thought it might be written in their cipher, we decoded it, and what came out was unexpected, to say the least."
"And what did it say?"
"It was a request to send someone north to dig up secrets on our Maitreya Luminous Cult."
Hearing that, the atmosphere among the audience was greatly divided.
While some were genuinely shocked and inclined to believe him, others made no effort to hide their skepticism.
"Frankly, this is hard to believe."
"Doesn’t this information seem awfully convenient for the Maitreya Luminous Cult?"
Wudang’s Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal and Qingcheng’s Sect Leader said it in turns.
Even the Beggar King took a step back, clearly attempting to maintain strict neutrality.
"You are more than welcome to cross-reference the cipher with the other captured Eastern Depot documents on the table. However, I didn't bring this up simply to claim that Alliance Leader Cheok Pae-myeong is an imperial spy. As you both just pointed out, it is far too convenient for us."
"???"
Realizing that this revelation wasn't even the main point of the meeting, confusion washed over the faces of everyone in the room.
“As I said earlier, we chased after the Eastern Depot’s trails. And as absurd as it sounds, their reach didn't stop at the Martial Alliance. It extended into the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult as well."
Il-mok didn't stop there.
He revealed that their espionage had uncovered even more insane truths.
Hit by one mind-blowing revelation after another, the people inside stood with their jaws practically glued to the floor.
"Wait, are you telling me the Eastern Depot has been manipulating both the Martial Alliance and the Demonic Cult at the same time?
"That's correct."
"You'd have to be insane to have any reason to do that."
"Exactly. Why would the Emperor bother planting moles inside the Martial Alliance when we are already his own subjects? Furthermore, what could they possibly gain by taking over both factions at once? The Demonic Cult would never bow to the Imperial Court. And the pact of non-interference strictly separates the government from the martial world. And what good does it do to have an imperial puppet as the Alliance Leader?"
As opinions were flying from every corner of the room. Il-mok stood quietly and let them talk.
Then, seizing the moment of a brief silence, he posed his question.
"We thought the same thing at first. However, try looking at it from a completely different angle. What if the Imperial Family planted spies inside both the Demonic Cult and the Martial Alliance with no intention of ruling over them from the start?"
While everyone looked confused, not sure what to make of that.
Beggar King, whose entire life revolved around piecing together fragmented intelligence, suddenly muttered aloud with colors draining from his face.
"The Imperial Family was planning to exterminate every single martial artist in the martial world."
Those sharp enough to follow caught the implication immediately from those words alone.
"Heavens above..."
As shock rippled through the room, Beggar King, who had been the first to piece it, furrowed his brow.
It was because he had realized something bizarre.
"Just who exactly are you people?"
As the rest looked baffled by his sudden questioning, the Beggar King pressed on.
"I do not say this out of arrogance, but our Beggars’ Gang is widely acknowledged as the pinnacle of intelligence gathering in the martial world. Yet, your information network completely dwarfs ours. For a religious cult that practically popped into existence in the Central Plains just a few years ago, your capabilities are absurdly excessive."
Beneath his mask, Il-mok quietly swallowed a heavy sigh.
It was because he had expected to a certain extent that it would turn out like this.
The question resonated with the others in the room, and they all turned to look at Il-mok with expressions full of the same unspoken question.
Il-mok slowly swept his gaze around the room, meeting each person's eyes in turn.
Then he raised his hand and pulled away the mask of the wrathful Heavenly King that had been covering his face.