Chapter 807: I Will Take All the Secret Boxes
The Palace Master of the Heavenly Will Palace, Wi Mucheon, glared at the Martial Emperor Divine Sword with eyes full of resentment. He could not understand it. A man who received the respect of the entire righteous faction had actually drawn in the Demonic Cult and the Unorthodox Alliance.
“Why in the world are you doing this?”
At last, the Martial Emperor Divine Sword spoke for the first time.
“Because too many people died because of you. Shouldn’t this war end now?”
“Bullshit!”
Wi Mucheon shouted furiously and vomited blood again. Standing on the boundary between life and death, he clenched his teeth and cried out toward life itself.
“Aren’t you ashamed?”
His voice rang out as if he were perfectly healthy.
The eyes of the Guardian Palace Master standing beside him were filled with sorrow. The Palace Master of the Heavenly Will Palace was burning away the little life force he had left in anger.
In contrast, the Martial Emperor Divine Sword remained calm.
“In the end, the one who brought these people here was not me, but you.”
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword had never expected the war against them to drag on this long. Nor had he realized that the mysterious organization called the Heavenly Will Palace was this powerful.
“All of this happened because you dreamed a dream you never should have dreamed.”
“Even so, you brought in the Demonic Cult? At the very least, I thought you were someone who understood honor.”
At that moment, a surprising statement came from the Martial Emperor Divine Sword.
“I wasn’t the one who invited them.”
“!”
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword’s gaze turned toward Hyeok Do-cheon, the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
“That man contacted me first.”
Wi Mucheon looked at Hyeok Do-cheon in shock. The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had contacted the Martial Alliance first? Why in the world would they do that?
Soon, Hyeok Do-cheon opened his mouth. One might have expected his voice to be thick and low, but contrary to his appearance, his voice was sharp and ringing. Anyone could tell from it that he had lived his life without hiding his emotions.
“I heard that the divine relic of the Heavenly Will Palace contains a mysterious power capable of granting the world.”
Having learned that information, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had intervened in this matter first.
When Geom Mugeuk had come here previously, he had already confirmed that the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult knew about the existence of the Secret Boxes.
‘They intervened because of that divine relic.’
There was no way they had interfered for the sake of the Martial Alliance.
Still, a doubt arose.
‘But the Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult wouldn’t believe some legendary rumor like that.’
Then one person came to mind.
‘The Dark Palace Master!’
He must have carefully wrapped the divine relic of the Heavenly Will Palace in the guise of a legend and leaked it to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. After long preparation, he must have eventually convinced Hyeok Do-cheon.
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned to the Martial Emperor Divine Sword.
The last time he came here, they had eaten together and even spoken for a while. Although the man had been mentally exhausted, he was not the sort who would move according to the will of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The final place Geom Mugeuk’s gaze landed was the Leader of the Unorthodox Alliance, Joo Ga-shin.
‘The answer must lie with that man.’
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword once again emphasized that it was Wi Mucheon who had created this situation today.
“You’re the one who called them all here. So stop blaming others.”
Originally, the Martial Emperor Divine Sword was not someone who shifted responsibility onto others. But this time, he decided to make an exception. Otherwise, he himself would not be able to endure it. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the faces of the subordinates who had died on the battlefield.
Of course, Wi Mucheon did not accept it quietly.
“You blame others while telling me not to blame others?”
For the dying man, disappointment toward the Martial Emperor Divine Sword turned into rage. His eyes burned fiercely, but the only thing he could do now was glare like this.
Hyeok Do-cheon declared to everyone.
“We will take the Secret Boxes.”
Hyeok Do-cheon looked at the Guardian Palace Master. The small Secret Box was in his hand.
“Bring it here.”
The Guardian Palace Master knew. Whether he handed over the Secret Box or not, he would die anyway. Those people would never allow what happened here today to leak outside.
The Guardian Palace Master looked at Wi Mucheon. With eyes that were losing their vitality, Wi Mucheon said nothing. Having served him for a long time, the Guardian Palace Master could understand the emotion contained in that gaze.
Do as you wish.
The Guardian Palace Master grasped the Secret Box with both hands and held it out.
“If you don’t step back, I’ll destroy the Secret Box.”
A moment of silence passed in an instant.
A cold smile appeared on Hyeok Do-cheon’s lips.
“If something you can break that easily shatters, then it isn’t worth possessing.”
Hyeok Do-cheon spoke coldly.
“Break it.”
Threats did not work on him.
Of course, the Guardian Palace Master was not an easy man either. He looked down at the Secret Box.
Then he truly injected his internal energy with the intention of destroying it. After all, every tragedy of the Heavenly Will Palace today had begun from this Secret Box.
‘I will bear this sin myself. I am sorry.’
He sincerely apologized to both the Palace Master of the Heavenly Will Palace and the Secret Box.
At that moment, Hyeok Do-cheon twitched slightly, but he only watched. If it really shattered like that, then the information itself had been wrong.
However, no matter how much internal energy the Guardian Palace Master poured into it, the Secret Box did not break.
Changing methods, the Guardian Palace Master raised his hand high, about to smash it down.
Shiiiiing.
Slash.
A streak of sword energy passed through the Guardian Palace Master’s arm.
Thud.
His arm was severed and fell to the ground.
Papapapapap!
Blood spurted from the severed limb. His blood poured over the Secret Box that had fallen to the floor.
At some point, Hyeok Do-cheon’s sword had already been drawn.
“That’s enough.”
In an instant, he had sent out sword energy and severed the Guardian Palace Master’s arm. Even if the Guardian Palace Master had been focused on the Secret Box, he was not someone who would be defeated so easily. That only showed how tremendous Hyeok Do-cheon’s martial arts truly were.
The Guardian Palace Master pressed his pressure points to stop the bleeding from his arm. Watching this scene, Wi Mucheon’s face grew even paler.
Wi Mucheon extended his arm and picked up the Secret Box that had fallen to the ground. The box, already stained with his own blood, was now covered with the Guardian Palace Master’s blood as well, making it look like a crimson chest. Wi Mucheon held it tightly in his arms.
Geom Mugeuk watched silently.
First of all, he felt sorrow for the Guardian Palace Master’s loyalty. It was the tragedy of someone who had served the wrong master. He was in no position to help, and even if he could help, it was not something he could do lightly by altering the history of the past.
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned to the Secret Box, from which blood dripped steadily.
It was a Secret Box he had always treated like a friend, even drawing a smiling face on it. Seeing it like this now felt incredibly unfamiliar.
Whenever he opened the seaside within the Temporal and Spatial Transference Technique, he always placed the Secret Box beside him.
Now that he thought about it, that smiling friend had gone through something like this. It felt like a martial artist returning home from the battlefield.
Looking down at the Secret Box, Wi Mucheon asked,
“Did he want my seat?”
At the calm question, Hyeok Do-cheon nodded and answered.
“He wanted your seat. In exchange for offering your lives, he demanded that the Heavenly Will Palace no longer be pursued.”
Hearing this, the Guardian Palace Master’s eyes turned red. They were so bloodshot it looked as though bloody tears might flow at any moment. In his mind, there was only one thought.
He had to kill the Dark Palace Master, even if it meant dying himself.
In contrast, Wi Mucheon was calm. Instead, an inexplicable smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
It looked like the hollow smile of someone facing death, but Geom Mugeuk sensed a strange exhilaration hidden within it.
And Geom Mugeuk knew exactly what that exhilaration meant.
The Dark Palace Master he had personally seen was an evil man, someone with enormous ambition.
‘He wanted the seat of the Palace Master of the Heavenly Will Palace, yet he’s giving up the Secret Boxes?’
Would he really try to take control of the Heavenly Will Palace without its divine relics? That would be no different from obtaining an empty shell.
At this moment, Wi Mucheon was thinking the same thing.
This was not the end.
‘Dark Palace Master… what exactly have you arranged?’
He had a clear premonition that something more than a simple betrayal was hidden here.
Hyeok Do-cheon spoke to the Martial Emperor Divine Sword.
“The one you want must be that man. Take him with you.”
At that moment, Joo Ga-shin, the Leader of the Unorthodox Alliance who had been silently watching until now, spoke for the first time.
“I will take one of the Secret Boxes. Choose first.”
As if he had expected this, a sneer appeared on Hyeok Do-cheon’s lips.
“I knew why you dragged the Unorthodox Alliance into this. You brought them in so I wouldn’t monopolize the Secret Boxes.”
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword had not told Hyeok Do-cheon beforehand that Joo Ga-shin would come today.
So when Hyeok Do-cheon saw Joo Ga-shin appear at Baekyang Peak, he realized the Martial Emperor Divine Sword had played a trick, but he did not reveal it.
Yes. The Martial Emperor Divine Sword was not someone who would be easily manipulated.
But the reason Joo Ga-shin came was different from what he had expected.
“You misunderstand. I never contacted the Unorthodox Alliance first.”
In other words, the Leader of the Unorthodox Alliance had intervened on his own.
At that moment, Wi Mucheon let out a low laugh.
“……Now I’m certain.”
It was the moment when a premonition turned into certainty.
“The Dark Palace Master has gathered all of you into one place.”
He had leaked the information that the Secret Boxes were ancient treasures both to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and to the Unorthodox Alliance.
At that moment, Hyeok Do-cheon shouted loudly.
“So what if it’s a trap? I’ll just smash everything.”
He was confident that no trap could confine him.
“I will take both the large Secret Box and the small Secret Box.”
A terrifying demonic aura swirled around his body.
But Joo Ga-shin was not afraid at all.
“You’ll have to concede one.”
There was a reason he spoke so confidently in front of the Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult.
Joo Ga-shin stepped closer to the Alliance Leader of the Martial Alliance. Hyeok Do-cheon immediately understood what that symbolic step meant.
“The two of you will join forces?”
Even in a situation where he should have flown into a rage, he remained calm. After all, he had expected this from the moment the Leader of the Unorthodox Alliance appeared.
“What will you do when I come to retrieve it later?”
It was a threat that he would attack the Unorthodox Alliance later to obtain the small Secret Box, but it did not work on Joo Ga-shin.
“That would still be better than you coming after obtaining the power of the Secret Box.”
In other words, if someone gained power from the Secret Box, they would invade anyway. At the very least, Joo Ga-shin firmly believed that some kind of power was contained within the Secret Boxes.
Hyeok Do-cheon looked at him and laughed.
Joo Ga-shin laughed as well.
If Hyeok Do-cheon’s smile meant *I will definitely kill you*, then Joo Ga-shin’s smile carried the madness of *Let’s die together, you bastard*.
Hyeok Do-cheon wanted to kill them all, but fighting both of them at once would be a battle where he himself would have to stake his life.
He was a cruel and terrifying man, but he was not reckless or foolish enough to fight a life-and-death battle against both the Martial Alliance Leader and the Leader of the Unorthodox Alliance in a place that might be a trap.
Amid the tense standoff between the two, the Martial Emperor Divine Sword said nothing. One war ended today, but he felt that a new war had begun.
His gaze turned to Wi Mucheon.
The Guardian Palace Master had retreated to one side and was desperately injecting internal energy with his remaining hand, trying to save Wi Mucheon whose life was fading away. Thanks to his efforts, Wi Mucheon was still alive.
‘Even now… you’re saying I shouldn’t blame you?’
Meanwhile, Hyeok Do-cheon finally decided to take only one.
The one he chose was the large Secret Box.
“If I’m choosing, bigger is better.”
He walked toward the large Secret Box. Though his back was turned to the two leaders, he did not care in the slightest. He walked with the ease of a tiger strolling through its own territory.
How many steps had he taken?
Wooooong.
The large Secret Box, which had been silent until now, began to vibrate. A heavy vibration resonated from deep within it.
Everyone there was startled.
‘The Secret Box is reacting to the Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult?’
Thinking that the Secret Box had recognized him, strength filled Hyeok Do-cheon’s steps.
Wooooooong.
The closer he approached, the more violently the Secret Box vibrated. It was not merely vibrating—it felt as though it was speaking.
Saaaaaaa.
That was not all. A faint light flowed out from the Secret Box, and a mysterious aura began to seep out. It was a wondrous energy that did not exist in the human world.
Joy flickered across Hyeok Do-cheon’s face.
If he obtained the power to possess the world, then the entire martial world would become his.
The dream of unifying the martial world, which he had hidden deep within his heart, began to stir.
But Geom Mugeuk instinctively realized something.
‘This is the Dark Palace Master’s arrangement!’
After all, in the history of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, there was no record that Hyeok Do-cheon had ever obtained some great power. Nor had he left any special achievements in martial world history.
‘But if that’s the case, how did the Dark Palace Master know the Secret Box would react to the Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult?’
As Hyeok Do-cheon approached, the resonance of the Secret Box grew stronger, and the energy flowing out of it became more intense.
Standing before the Secret Box, Hyeok Do-cheon declared proudly,
“From now on, I am your master.”
Then he slowly placed his palm on the Secret Box.
He expected an even greater reaction, but instead nothing happened. The resonance disappeared, and the mysterious aura stopped flowing.
Feeling slightly deflated, Hyeok Do-cheon tried to remove his hand from the Secret Box.
At that moment, he flinched.
His palm would not come off the Secret Box. The Secret Box had begun pulling him in with tremendous force.
“What is this?”
It was not just his hand being pulled.
His body began to be dragged toward the Secret Box, and he resisted by bracing himself with his other hand.
A sense of foreboding made a curse burst out of his mouth.
“Damn it!”
The Secret Box was pulling him in with immense force. This power had a nature he had never experienced before.
A power that did not belong to the human world.
Hyeok Do-cheon removed the hand he was bracing with and struck the Secret Box with his fist.
Boom! Bang!
Despite the tremendous impact, the Secret Box did not move even an inch, as though it had taken root in the ground.
Thud.
Instead, because he had removed the supporting hand and scattered his internal energy, Hyeok Do-cheon could not withstand the pulling force and smashed his face against the Secret Box.
It was a situation that should have filled the Heavenly Demon with humiliation.
The people watching were none other than the Martial Alliance Leader and the Leader of the Unorthodox Alliance.
But he had no time to feel shame.
It was not merely because the suction force was powerful.
It was because he instinctively felt that this power was different.
Like a waterfall falling from above to below, like a river inevitably flowing into the sea—
it dragged him in like an unavoidable law of nature.
It was not a force a human could resist.
Even so, Hyeok Do-cheon drew out his internal energy to the limit and resisted.
“You damned thing! KRAAAAAA!”
With his face pressed against the Secret Box, Hyeok Do-cheon forced his head to turn and looked back.
The Martial Emperor Divine Sword and Joo Ga-shin were simply staring in shock at this sudden situation.
Wi Mucheon and the Guardian Palace Master were the same. They had served the Secret Boxes as divine relics their entire lives, but this was the first time they had ever seen a Secret Box pull a person in.
At first, Geom Mugeuk had felt a chill run down his spine. He wondered if the Secret Box might send Hyeok Do-cheon three hundred years into the future.
But it did not seem to be the case. When it had absorbed him, it had pulled him in like a swamp swallowing him whole, yet now the surface of the Secret Box remained hard.
At that exact moment!
Geom Mugeuk saw it.
For a brief instant, something overlapped with Hyeok Do-cheon’s body. A certain existence flickered as it began to emerge from him.
And Geom Mugeuk knew better than anyone present what that was.
‘The Heavenly Demon Spirit!’
Geom Mugeuk realized.
The Secret Box was not trying to absorb Hyeok Do-cheon.
‘The Secret Box is absorbing the Heavenly Demon Spirit!’