A line of more than ten carriages traveled in a single file.
The dragons painted on the carriage walls looked as if they might ascend to the heavens at any moment.
Passing martial artists respectfully clasped their fists toward the carriages.
In Wuhan, there was only one person who could use carriages adorned with dragons.
Indeed, the lead carriage bore the flag symbolizing the Martial Alliance Leader.
The carriages came to a halt in front of the Martial Pavilion.
The doors of the ten carriages, lined up in a row, opened simultaneously.
Jin Pae-cheon stepped out from the seventh carriage.
From the other carriages, escort warriors disembarked.
In the Martial Alliance Leader’s official processions, a dozen identical carriages moved together like this, making it impossible to know which one he occupied.
As Jin Pae-cheon alighted, the heroes guarding the Martial Pavilion all clasped their fists and bowed.
The heroes had been guarding the place ever since the Heavenly Wandering Hermit was ambushed.
“We greet the Alliance Leader!”
Jin Pae-cheon entered the Martial Pavilion, welcomed by the martial artists.
The martial artists guarding the courtyard also greeted him with polite respect.
At the very least, the martial artists present here were those who respected and followed the Heavenly Wandering Hermit more than the Martial Alliance Leader.
Having heard news of the Alliance Leader’s arrival, the Heavenly Wandering Hermit came outside.
“I greet the Alliance Leader.”
Though they were old friends, the Heavenly Wandering Hermit showed the courteous respect due to the Alliance Leader, as other heroes were present.
“Are you feeling any better?”
“Thanks to your concern, I am fine. Please, come inside.”
The two men went inside the building.
Only after the Heavenly Wandering Hermit dismissed everyone around them did they speak comfortably.
“I should have come sooner, I’m sorry.”
“Not at all. I’m grateful you came at all, busy as you are.”
Hwa Yul-cheong grasped Jin Pae-cheon’s hand.
Hwa Yul-cheong’s hand was so dry it felt like holding a withered branch.
Jin Pae-cheon took out a small box he had prepared from his robes.
“What is this?”
When Hwa Yul-cheong opened the box, he found a small pill inside.
“It’s a Blood-Replenishing Pill.”
The Blood-Replenishing Pill was medicine taken after losing a lot of blood, the best remedy for restoring one’s energy after an injury.
“Why did you bring something so precious?”
“What could be more precious to me than you?”
“Thank you. I will take it well.”
“Take it now. Aren’t you just going to sell it later to help people? Take it in front of me.”
Their gazes met and locked in mid-air.
Jin Pae-cheon did not back down.
“Alright.”
Hwa Yul-cheong took the Blood-Replenishing Pill on the spot and circulated his energy for one cycle.
There was no better medicine for his injuries, and Hwa Yul-cheong’s complexion immediately improved.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“It’s been a while. Shall we have a drink?”
Jin Pae-cheon shook his head.
“What’s with drinking after taking medicine? I’m fine.”
“Then let’s have some tea. I have some I brewed earlier.”
While Hwa Yul-cheong prepared the tea, Jin Pae-cheon looked around the interior.
Nothing had changed since his last visit.
The furniture, the desk, all were old and cheap.
That was because he was a man who spent any money he had to help the poor.
The martial artists who had voluntarily come to protect him spoke volumes about his life.
It was hard to believe that such a man was behind a conspiracy.
Hwa Yul-cheong brought a teapot to the table.
To think a moment would come when I have to wonder if he’s poisoned the tea.
“How long has it been? This is the first time since the three-party meeting, isn’t it?”
Hwa Yul-cheong remembered their last meeting precisely.
“You were quite agitated that day.”
“Was I?”
Was I agitated? Jin Pae-cheon couldn’t quite remember if he had been.
On the other hand, Hwa Yul-cheong remembered that day clearly.
“That day, you spoke more about the Young Cult Master than the Demon Cult Master or the Unorthodox Alliance Leader. You said he would become terrifying once he matured.”
I remember now.
It must have sounded like I was agitated to him.
Perhaps I really was.
Hwa Yul-cheong was the only person to whom I could honestly convey such feelings.
“That Young Cult Master is here in Wuhan.”
Hwa Yul-cheong’s hand, which was lifting a teacup, paused.
A flicker of surprise crossed his face, reflected on the surface of the tea.
“Is that truly so?”
Jin Pae-cheon told him the facts as they were.
“There are people who have counterfeited and sold the Divine Sect’s hidden weapons. The very same hidden weapons that were used to attack you.”
“The Young Cult Master of the Demon Sect came all the way here because of that?”
Hwa Yul-cheong wore an expression of incomprehension.
Jin Pae-cheon recalled the words Geom Mugeuk had told him.
Fight with sincerity.
Then you may be able to see something that only you, Alliance Leader, can recognize.
“That’s not the only reason.”
Jin Pae-cheon showed his hand first.
He hadn’t come to play a game of wits.
“They suspect that you are behind it all.”
Hwa Yul-cheong looked as if he didn’t know how to take this, how to react, before finally letting out a hollow laugh.
“Why would the Demon Sect frame me with such a ridiculous accusation?”
Hwa Yul-cheong didn’t even bother to ask if he believed it.
He seemed to take it for granted that Jin Pae-cheon wouldn’t.
“Then is the ambush I suffered also related to that?”
“There’s a high probability.”
“It seems those fiends are plotting something.”
The word ‘plotting’ struck Jin Pae-cheon’s heart.
Whose plot is this? Geom Mugeuk’s? Or Hwa Yul-cheong’s?
Jin Pae-cheon rose from his seat and walked to the window.
Hwa Yul-cheong remained seated, watching his back.
A silence fell between them.
Jin Pae-cheon’s back, different from usual, compelled a single question.
“Are you suspecting me?”
For such a difficult question, the answer came immediately.
“How could I? I’ve watched your entire life from beside you. It’s just, as you said, why would such an intelligent person level such a ridiculous accusation? That thought keeps nagging me.”
But Hwa Yul-cheong was seeing through his friend’s heart with perfect clarity.
“No, you are wavering right now.”
Jin Pae-cheon did not deny it.
Not denying it at this moment.
This was precisely what Geom Mugeuk had intended.
The thought was that if he held fast to the truth while confronting him, he at least wouldn’t be swayed.
Jin Pae-cheon honestly revealed his heart.
“Yes, I admit it. The Young Cult Master is someone who has given me that much reason to trust.”
If it weren’t for Geom Mugeuk, I can say for certain that I would never have suspected Hwa Yul-cheong.
Even if clear evidence had emerged, even if a letter he had signed with others had appeared, I would have trusted my friend.
Because of Geom Mugeuk, I am now doing something I should never do to a friend.
I was shattering a lifetime of trust in a single day.
“Do you remember the day we first met?”
To Jin Pae-cheon’s question, Hwa Yul-cheong’s answer came.
“How could I forget?”
Hwa Yul-cheong added, his eyes full of reminiscence.
“My life changed the day I met you.”
Jin Pae-cheon, who had been gazing out the window, slowly turned to look at Hwa Yul-cheong.
Was it because this situation was so heart-wrenching? Hwa Yul-cheong brought up something he had never once said to Jin Pae-cheon.
“Do you know why I’ve lived my life helping people like this?”
Besides his righteous and heroic character, could there be another reason?
“It was because of you.”
“Because of me?”
“Before I met you, I was not a person who would sacrifice so much for others.”
Yet, the reason he had lived such a life was something Jin Pae-cheon had never imagined.
“I wanted to be a friend worthy of you.”
“...”
This was a fact Jin Pae-cheon had not known.
He had never spoken of such things before.
“I was always a small bird, tearing at my seams.”
Hwa Yul-cheong’s gaze was fixed on Jin Pae-cheon’s untouched teacup.
His eyes seemed to be saying:
I lived my whole life like this because of you, yet you doubt me because of the words of a demonic practitioner?
Because he didn’t question him aloud, his gaze looked all the more sorrowful.
Jin Pae-cheon calmly bid farewell.
He realized his own emotions were becoming agitated, and he could no longer view him rationally.
“I hope the day will come when I can sincerely apologize. Please take care of yourself.”
As he slowly walked past him, Hwa Yul-cheong spoke.
“You may doubt me, but doubt the Young Cult Master as well. That Young Cult Master is a fearsome person, capable of driving such a wedge between you and me.”
Hwa Yul-cheong conveyed his sincere worry to his friend.
“I am fine, so please, be careful.”
*
Jin Pae-cheon stood in a pavilion in the Azure Cloud Forest.
It was the very same bamboo forest pavilion where he had met Geom Muyang before.
Today, too, the place was shrouded in dense fog.
Geom Mugeuk arrived there.
It was Jin Pae-cheon who had contacted him for a meeting.
He felt that after meeting his friend, it was now time to meet Geom Mugeuk.
Geom Mugeuk stepped into the pavilion and stood beside Jin Pae-cheon.
“On my way here, I kept thinking about what the wisest choice I could make would be.”
“Did you find an answer?”
“Yes, I did.”
The gazes of the two men, which had been on the fog, turned to each other.
Jin Pae-cheon’s eyes were still searching for the truth.
“It is trust. No matter what you think of me, Alliance Leader, I must trust you. I should tell you everything. So that there are no misunderstandings between you and me. That is my conclusion.”
No matter how clearly and deeply he spoke, it was not easy for his sentiment to be fully conveyed to Jin Pae-cheon at this moment.
“Sometimes, it is trust that obscures the truth.”
This applied to both Geom Mugeuk and Hwa Yul-cheong.
“I am on my way back from meeting that friend.”
Geom Mugeuk already knew.
He had made an official procession, after all.
“I told him everything honestly.”
“So what did he say?”
Geom Mugeuk was curious about Hwa Yul-cheong’s reaction.
“I expected him to get angry, but he didn’t.”
Geom Mugeuk thought that if Hwa Yul-cheong had reacted so calmly and composedly, he wouldn't have been able to find out anything, but because of that, there was something Jin Pae-cheon had discovered.
“Rather, seeing my friend worry about me, I came to realize one thing.”
Jin Pae-cheon’s gaze turned to Geom Mugeuk.
“The fact that my friend has never once been angry with me.”
Jin Pae-cheon repeated, as if for emphasis.
“We have been friends for decades, but he has never once been angry with me. Surprisingly, I realized that fact today. Yes, it could be possible. He is such a good-natured friend, after all. But do you know what I was like?”
Geom Mugeuk said with a smile.
“You must have been angry a lot, Alliance Leader.”
Though he controlled his emotions well now with age, he was originally a rough and domineering person.
“No. I have never been angry with him either.”
It was a result that surprised both the listener, Geom Mugeuk, and the speaker, Jin Pae-cheon.
“Considering my personality in my youth, it was an impossible thing. I thought about it on my way here. Why did I never get angry with him?”
And Jin Pae-cheon had found the answer.
“Because that friend always catered to my mood.”
Jin Pae-cheon had never once in his life seriously thought about this.
He was a good-natured friend, and so it was comfortable to be with him.
“Even when I was the successor, and after I became the Alliance Leader, he accommodated me in everything. When I was angry, he was angry with me, and when I was happy, he was happy with me.”
In a word, he was a truly good friend.
“But thinking about it, that friend has never once revealed his own emotions to me. Neither joy nor sorrow. He has not even shown a single sign of annoyance.”
If that was just his personality, it might be possible.
“He is a man who does not spare his tears for the poor. He is a man who gets more furious than anyone when he sees injustice. But he has never expressed those overflowing emotions to me.”
Jin Pae-cheon asked Geom Mugeuk with a look that demanded an answer.
“Because I am the Alliance Leader? Because he finds me difficult?”
Jin Pae-cheon was in an agitated state, and it was the first time he had spoken so much to someone like this.
He truly never thought that person would be Geom Mugeuk.
Finally, Geom Mugeuk, who had only been listening, opened his mouth.
“Thanks to that, you were able to come this far, weren’t you?”
“...!”
“There was never a reason to ruin the relationship, and you were able to steadily build your friendship over several decades, weren’t you?”
How could the Martial Alliance Leader not feel the discomfort of suspecting a long-time friend?
And it was a distortion in the relationship that he had discovered himself, so Jin Pae-cheon’s suspicion turned back toward Geom Mugeuk.
“Isn’t it the same for you, who treats people with nice words?”
Geom Mugeuk calmly persuaded him.
“If I were the real Cult Master instead of the Acting Cult Master, you could suspect that the Main Sect orchestrated this situation. I am good at sowing discord and am a cunning person. However, as long as my father is the Cult Master, we do not use such methods. My father would just push right through. He would say, 'Try and stop me,'”
He could not deny those words.
The Geom Woojin he knew was that kind of man.
“Furthermore, he would not even create such a situation.”
Geom Mugeuk relayed the news to Jin Pae-cheon.
“The old demons who broke the Demon Prohibition Order are coming here.”
Jin Pae-cheon knew what the Demon Prohibition Order was better than anyone.
It was a prohibition order that had been passed down in the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect for hundreds of years.
He had judged that the reason they kept the masters of the Demon Sect who had committed crimes alive instead of killing them was ultimately to use them when a fight with the Martial Alliance broke out someday.
“Breaking the Demon Prohibition Order means they have defied the Cult Master’s order. To think we would use such people to plot something? If you think that, then you are gravely mistaken about my father.”
The fact that the old demons had broken the Demon Prohibition Order was helpful at this moment.
Because Jin Pae-cheon also agreed with Geom Mugeuk’s words.
“Who is coming?”
“The Demon Flame Lord and the White Bone Soul Demon are coming.”
Jin Pae-cheon’s expression hardened.
They were people who could cause a bloodbath if not handled properly.
“Why are they coming?”
“Since we did not send them, how would we know? But since what they do best is kill people, they must be coming to kill someone.”
A cold energy flowed from Jin Pae-cheon’s body.
He had been maintaining his composure for the sake of the Alliance and the Righteous Path martial world despite his simmering rage, but now even the criminals of the Demon Sect were coming?
Toward that cold anger, Geom Mugeuk uttered a surprising statement.
“I believe that you, Alliance Leader, know who they are coming to kill.”
“Me?”
To Jin Pae-cheon, who looked beyond surprised to dumbfounded, Geom Mugeuk asked.
If their goal is to cause a rift between the Main Sect and the Martial Alliance.
“Who do you think they would have to kill for you to lose your composure?”