Chapter 350: Evil Refining Sect (3)
The death of an Elder of the Cheon Clan.
And the fact that they had sent his severed head to the Cult was nothing less than a declaration that either you or I had to disappear.
“Have those damned marauders finally lost their minds?”
Saber Demon clicked his tongue and let out a bitter laugh at the reopened Heavenly Demon Pavilion meeting.
Unlike the previous grand assembly, this one was a small-scale meeting with only about twenty or so in attendance.
However, the atmosphere inside was far more menacing than last time.
Regardless of political factions or alliances, everyone was outraged by the actions of the Evil Refining Sect.
“We must dispatch our forces immediately and eliminate them!”
“This is a direct challenge to the authority of the Cult!”
The Elders of the Cheon Clan all raised their voices in unison, calling for the subjugation of the Evil Refining Sect.
Though Gwangmyeolseung Cheon Gokchu held little influence within the Cheon Clan, his surname was still Cheon.
Ilro let out a sigh and spoke.
“All the former Elders who moved to Heavenly Demon Pavilion have jointly submitted petitions.”
These were the ones who had supported Cheon Yura to the end, more than anyone else.
Cheon Yura could never afford to ignore their public opinion.
“Hall Leader of Flying Immortal Hall.”
“Y-yes!”
Cheon Yura turned her gaze toward the Hall Leader of Flying Immortal Hall, who had been specially invited to this meeting.
He had promised to bring good news, yet now he stood with his head bowed, unable to utter a single word.
“What happened here?”
The Hall Leader of Flying Immortal Hall hurriedly began spouting excuses.
“M-my deepest apologies! Mad Annihilation Monk had been pursuing them in cooperation with Biseondang, but…”
“But?”
His head sank even lower.
“He discovered signs of a mass slaughter near the Qinghai Desert and, in a fit of rage, ignored our attempts to restrain him and charged in alone. In the end…”
He had died fighting the Evil Refining Sect alone.
That must have been the conclusion.
However, there was something strange about all this.
“Did you say… slaughter?”
A slight twitch appeared at the corner of Cheon Yura’s eye.
“Yes, and it’s reported that they mainly targeted nomads indiscriminately.”
“…….”
Watching her reaction, the Hall Leader of Flying Immortal Hall cautiously continued.
“This clearly deviates from the Evil Refining Sect’s usual behavior.”
Cheon Yura gently tapped the armrest of her throne with her fingertips.
She turned to me and asked,
“What does the Hall Lord think?”
“It’s definitely strange.”
The Evil Refining Sect normally did not target civilians.
Why? The reason was simple.
‘Because there’s no profit in it.’
No matter how genuine those bastards were as marauders, attacking nomads scattered across the vast regions of Qinghai and Xinjiang wasn’t efficient.
Their true targets had always been the martial sects and merchant groups spread throughout Qinghai.
‘And yet this has happened…’
There could only be one conclusion.
“The internal policy of the Evil Refining Sect has changed?”
“Or perhaps the Sect Leader has been replaced.”
Someone seated at the head of the table picked up my words.
I turned my gaze toward that person.
“Heavenly Thunder Corps Leader.”
Cheon Jumyeong of the Heavenly Thunder Corps looked at me with disinterest and met my eyes.
“The Sect Leader of the Evil Refining Sect I knew belonged to the moderate faction. That’s why they had been able to maintain peace with us for decades.”
“You’re saying it’s not just that his policies have changed, but that the Sect Leader himself has been replaced?”
“Do I need to explain it twice? I thought you’d catch on without me spelling it out.”
…This bastard?
A twitch involuntarily formed at the corner of my mouth at Cheon Jumyeong’s openly antagonistic tone.
“If you two want to fight, take it outside. For now, let’s focus on coming up with a strategy, shall we?”
Saber Demon glared at both me and Cheon Jumyeong, looking back and forth between us.
“Understand this much—any moderate response is out of the question. If we don’t crush them completely, the Cult itself will be shaken.”
Just as he said.
If they had killed Cheon Gokchu and quietly covered it up, perhaps it would have been a different story. But to send his head packed in a box like this was no different from declaring open war.
At that moment, the Sword Demon, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up.
“But we don’t even know where their base is.”
“…….”
“We don’t even know if their headquarters are in Xinjiang or Qinghai. Sure, we could keep tracking them and maybe catch a lead or two, but that’s probably as far as we’d get.”
The combined size of Qinghai and Xinjiang alone rivaled the entirety of the Central Plains.
“Damn it, then what the hell are we supposed to do?!”
Saber Demon’s irritation boiled over.
“First, we need to locate their base.”
“And how exactly?!”
Just as Saber Demon’s frustration reached its peak.
I raised my hand and spoke lightly.
“I’ll go.”
All eyes in the room immediately turned to me.
“What?”
“What did you just say?!”
The Great Elder, Cheon Yeongha, shook his head with a grave expression.
“Do you think you still hold the same position as before? You cannot leave your post so carelessly.”
“You’re absolutely right. But if we let this drag on, the situation might spiral out of control before we know it.”
Cheon Yeongha was left momentarily speechless.
“That may… be true, but…”
I turned to Cheon Yura and bowed deeply.
“One month.”
“…….”
“I’ll erase the Evil Refining Sect from the Central Plains and return within one month.”
One month.
Ordinarily, just traveling back and forth would take that long.
And considering that searching for the Evil Refining Sect could take years, this was practically an impossible promise.
“Are you serious?”
“When have I ever lied to you, Cult Leader?”
“I feel like there have been a few times.”
“…….”
At Cheon Yura’s words, a hellish silence fell over the room.
“…Kuh!”
While several people desperately struggled to hold back the laughter bubbling up from within, I turned my head slightly and replied in a quiet voice.
“This time, I mean it.”
“Hm, is that so?”
She seemed to fall into thought for a brief moment.
“You must be saying that because you’re confident.”
“Of course.”
“Very well.”
She stood up and spoke.
“Do you require any support?”
“If I needed support, there would be no point in me going. I’ll take only my direct subordinates with me.”
Especially since this was the perfect opportunity to finally put the Underworld King’s Unit I had raised at astronomical expense to the test in real combat.
And the Evil Refining Sect was the perfect target.
“Deal with it as quickly as possible and return.”
She gave a faint smile and added,
“Don’t leave your partner waiting alone for too long.”
I blinked my eyes wide at her words.
Did my Yura just make a joke like that?
And so, I was granted permission to pursue the Evil Refining Sect.
In truth, I had several reasons for wanting to leave the Cult.
One personal reason was that I simply wanted to clear my head for a bit.
I also needed to consider a successor for Baek Sang-ah, who had entered the sage’s time, and it was a chance to momentarily set aside the heavy burdens of being the Demonic Faction Lord.
And there was another reason…
“Cluck, cluck, cluck! You sure know how to make an old woman jealous.”
The always warm-looking elder lady.
Great Elder Cheon Yeongha clicked her tongue lightly as she held a steaming teacup.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Well, we are newlyweds. Cut us some slack.”
I needed at least this much fun to endure all the overwhelming duties on my shoulders.
Cheon Yeongha took a sip of her tea and spoke.
“But are you really confident? Tracking down the Evil Refining Sect is no easy task. If you exceed that one-month deadline you mentioned, everyone will try to tear you apart.”
I knew that already.
No matter how much I had contributed to the Cult until now, that had only been to secure my position as the Demonic Faction Lord.
Now that I held this position, I had no choice but to start building achievements from scratch once again.
“In fact… I’ve already more or less pinpointed their location.”
“What!?”
“As long as they haven’t moved elsewhere.”
“How would you know that? Even Cheon Gokchu only trained at one of their branch divisions and didn’t know the location of their main base. So how could you possibly know?”
“Well… let’s just say I have my own source of information.”
I dodged the question with a vague answer.
The fact that my source was someone from a thousand years ago was a secret.
‘Senior Brother Sa said this, didn’t he?’
To the north of Gansu Province.
Somewhere near the Xinjiang border, he had once hidden a treasure vault.
And right near that place…
—"Near there, you'll find the sanctuary of the radical faction that split off from the Sun and Moon Divine Sect. Those lunatics worship the Earth God once revered by the Sun and Moon Divine Sect, calling it the Great Evil Spirit."
If Sa Gumhui’s information was accurate, then those bastards must be the Evil Refining Sect.
The location was quite far from their current activity zones, which might be exactly why they had managed to keep their main base hidden all this time.
Of course, my purpose in this expedition wasn’t limited to the Evil Refining Sect alone.
There was a reason I had refused even Biseondang’s cooperation and insisted on taking only my direct subordinates with me.
“Great Elder.”
“What is it?”
“Do you happen to know the term ‘Royal Private Treasury’?”
Cheon Yeongha tilted her head.
“Of course. It refers to the king’s personal assets, doesn’t it?”
“Hehehe, that’s right.”
This Heavenly Demon Cult belonged to Yura.
But just like an emperor couldn’t recklessly use the state’s treasury as his own, Yura couldn’t freely touch the Cult’s finances either.
The same had applied to the previous Cult Leaders before her.
That was why she needed to accumulate personal wealth to prepare for political emergencies…
Unfortunately, she lacked the talent for managing money.
‘Especially after Sa Biyeon disappeared in the past life, she struggled even more with financial issues…’
The reforms she envisioned for the Cult were impossible without funds.
And most of the Cheon Clan, who should have supported her financially, stood against her.
But at least in this life, Yura wouldn’t have to suffer over money.
I clenched my fist and declared,
“A capable man.”
“Hm?”
“Since ancient times, a man’s worth was measured by how much he could earn outside to support his wife and children.”
Cheon Yeongha mumbled sourly.
“The world isn’t all about money… but as superficial as that sounds, you’re not entirely wrong.”
“I’ll use this mission to prove to Yura that I’m a capable man!”
If even a quarter of what Senior Brother Sa had claimed was true, Yura wouldn’t have to worry about money for the rest of her reign.
‘I’ll fill the Heavenly Demon Pavilion’s treasury to the brim!’
Cheon Yeongha could only blink in confusion at my sudden, unexplainable enthusiasm.
“…Well, I don’t know what you’re planning, but… do your best, I suppose?”
Somewhere in the Ten Thousand Mountain.
A woman who co-led the Underworld King’s Unit along with Myeong-oh.
So Soryu glared at the hundreds of warriors gathered before her.
“The time has come.”
“…….”
“…….”
“All these years, I kept you useless wretches alive for this one moment.”
In truth, their suffering over the years had been anything but easy.
On top of the brutal training under the Salga method, they had been provided with rare elixirs and top-tier martial arts that most people couldn’t hope to obtain in a lifetime.
So Soryu declared in a chilling voice,
“Your ultimate goal is to take down the Demonic Ghost Execution Squad, but before you face them, the Evil Refining Sect will serve as the perfect warm-up.”
“I will not allow a single one of you to die. You are not mere assassins, but black reapers who stand on par with the elites of the So Clan. Erase every piece of filth in the desert without leaving a trace.”
“Prove your worth to the master you serve.”
The hundreds of assassins of the Underworld King’s Unit responded in unison, their low voices perfectly synchronized.
“Awaiting orders.”