SERIES: Return Of The Divine Thief
CHAPTER: 20
The counterfeit medicine distribution case in Heumju.
Muryang already knew who the culprit was.
The Yu Clan of Nannyeong. One of the seeds the Demonic Cult had sown in the Central Plains a hundred years ago.
They created addictive counterfeit medicine in Nannyeong and distributed it through the Heumju port.
Then, with the funds and the manpower addicted to the drugs, they prepared for the return of the Demonic Cult.
‘It was actually a great help to the Demonic Cult.’
The reason Muryang had rapidly expanded his forces was to wage an all-out war against the Demonic Cult's lackeys in Nannyeong.
However, he was still weighing his chances, unsure if he had gathered enough strength yet. And to think they happened to be entangled with his senior brother.
Not just entangled—judging by the circumstances, it was highly likely that his senior brother had been killed by them.
What a terrible twist of fate.
But, in a way, it was for the best.
Thanks to this, he had found an ally.
‘I was originally planning to absorb one more faction before proceeding.’
Having his senior brother on his side would be more helpful than having another run-of-the-mill underworld faction.
Muryang’s eyes, emerging from his thoughts, glinted coldly.
He spoke in a low voice to Baekun, who was still staring at him with eyes full of questions.
“So, how far did you get?”
“I found out that the merchant guild distributing the counterfeit medicine has its base in Heumju.”
“Good. Then we can start right away.”
Muryang also knew who the mastermind of this affair was, but he didn't know the finer details.
However, this much information was enough to draw them out.
“Not yet. If we carelessly touch the distributors, the ones making the medicine might flee.”
“I know the source of the medicine.”
He himself had been tracking them for the past six months but had only found the distributors.
It was surprising that Muryang already knew.
No, more than that.
“You knew? Why did you just leave them be? With your skills, you could have easily handled it, couldn't you? So where is the medicine coming from?”
“The Yu Clan of Nannyeong.”
“The Yu Clan, the renowned merchant family from Guangxi Province? I heard they’ve hired a significant number of martial artists…”
Baekun’s brow furrowed.
As far as he knew, the Yu Clan weren’t ordinary merchants.
They were a group that wielded power greater than the Red Bridge Faction or the Daewung Faction, using their immense wealth to employ numerous martial artists as retainers.
“The martial artists they’ve hired are just riffraff anyway. The truly important part is something else.”
“What is it?”
Muryang’s expression turned chillingly cold.
“They are fanatics. They’re fundamentally different from ordinary underworld factions that can be controlled just by cutting off the head of the snake. We have to go beyond simply winning and pull them out completely, roots and all.”
“Fanatics?”
Baekun had never heard any rumors of fanatics running rampant in this area.
“The Demonic Cult.”
“…What?”
Baekun asked again, his face a mask of disbelief.
The Demonic Cult. Hadn't they become a thing of the distant past, a name used only to scare children in the martial world?
But Muryang shattered his belief once more with a voice full of conviction.
“Yes. That very Demonic Cult.”
“……!”
“Of course, it doesn’t really matter whether you believe me or not, Senior Brother.”
As he said, it was a difficult story to believe.
However, if by some chance the force behind this incident was the Demonic Cult, plotting a comeback…
Then this was no simple counterfeit medicine case.
Baekun’s face hardened gravely.
“…Let’s assume what you’re saying is true. Then this isn’t something we should handle on our own. We need to coordinate with other factions.”
“Other factions? Like who?”
At Muryang’s indifferent question, Baekun thought for a moment before answering.
“Well… for starters, the pillars of the Southern Martial World, like the Seomun Clan or the Danmok Clan…”
Muryang chuckled lightly at the answer.
“Senior Brother, do you really think they’ll believe us?”
“……”
“And even if they do believe us, will they set aside all their own affairs to join us in a crusade against the Demonic Cult?”
The terror of the Demonic Cult had long since been diluted by the passage of a hundred years.
In his past life, when the Demonic Cult had actually re-emerged, the renowned orthodox sects of the Central Plains had dismissed them as ‘merely a band of fanatics from the frontier.’
Even as the entire Southern Martial World was falling into the Demonic Cult’s grasp, the martial factions from other regions, far from helping, had merely scoffed, saying, ‘The Southern Martial World folks were just too weak.’
“Th-then what should we do…?”
“What do you mean, what should we do? We have to handle it ourselves.”
“What? How are we supposed to deal with the forces of the Demonic Cult by ourselves?”
Baekun was incredulous.
No matter how much of a monster his young junior brother was, trying to take on the Demonic Cult, which had shaken the world a hundred years ago, was like a praying mantis trying to stop a chariot.
“I know what you’re worried about, but the Yu Clan isn’t the main body of the Demonic Cult. The ‘seeds’ left behind in the Central Plains a hundred years ago are just moving independently for now.”
“Seeds?”
“You and I, Senior Brother. With the strength of the Red Bridge Faction and the Daewung Faction under my command, we can more than handle the ones who have taken root in Nannyeong.”
Muryang paused to catch his breath, then spoke as if piercing through the future with his cold eyes.
“Of course, someday they will link up again and become one massive force. But by then, we will also be much stronger and larger than we are now.”
“Are you thinking of gathering even the underworld factions?”
“Of course, we need to gather the underworld factions. But I’m aiming for something a little bigger.”
“Something bigger?”
“An Alliance. A single organization that will encompass both the underworld and the orthodox world.”
The Martial Alliance.
The name, proposed by Heuk Cheolsan of the Daewung Faction, was audacious to the extreme.
After hearing Muryang’s explanation of the group he envisioned, Baekun didn’t speak immediately, mulling it over for a moment.
“…It’s a radical idea. You might be able to suppress the underworld with force, but will the arrogant leaders of the orthodox sects be willing to join? In their own territories, they are no different from kings.”
Did Muryang not know that?
Having lived a past life, he knew it better than anyone.
“Well, that’s a problem for later. For now, let’s deal with what’s in front of us.”
“Do you have a good plan?”
At Baekun’s question, Muryang stood up and replied.
“War. We’ll have to wipe them all out, leaving not even a single blade of grass.”
With those words, Muryang said no more.
A vicious killing intent was all that lingered in the room.
He felt like a completely different person from the one who had faced him.
A killing intent like that of an Asura. At his age, what in the world has he been through?
Baekun thought that this young junior brother of his might truly be a monster.
* * *
Heuk Cheolsan, the Lodge Leader of the Daeungbang.
Having received Muryang’s letter, he had ridden without rest to reach Mui County, where he was now overcome by a strange sensation.
And at its center stood a building, one he couldn't decide whether to call a monstrosity or a masterpiece.
‘It’s all… red.’
It was the Red Pavilion, the headquarters of the Red Bridge Faction.
True to its name, the building, painted entirely in red, failed to blend with the surrounding scenery, standing out and flaunting its existence.
Heuk Cheolsan clicked his tongue and entered the bizarre structure.
He was greeted by Jo Yangtae, the Lodge Leader of the Red Bridge Faction.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lodge Leader Jo.”
“Welcome, Lodge Leader Heuk. It must have been a long journey.”
The two exchanged an awkward greeting.
Though both were masters of their own factions, they were now bound in an alliance of sorts under the strange entity known as ‘Muryang’.
“Lord Muryang is…”
Heuk Cheolsan was about to get to the point.
“Everyone’s here.”
The inner door opened, and Muryang appeared.
Beside him stood a man with sharp features whom Heuk Cheolsan had never seen before.
With their appearance, the air in the room grew heavy.
Heuk Cheolsan immediately rose from his seat, cupped his fist toward Muryang, and spoke.
“Greetings to my benefactor.”
“Let’s not be so formal. Be comfortable.”
“If that is what you wish, my lord.”
As Heuk Cheolsan straightened his posture, Muryang introduced Baekun.
“This is my senior brother, Baekun. This is the Lodge Leader of the Daeungbang, Heuk Cheolsan.”
Heuk Cheolsan’s eyes widened in astonishment.
‘Senior brother…?’
To think that this monstrous lord had a senior brother.
Heuk Cheolsan hurriedly cupped his fist.
“It is an honor to meet you, Great Hero Baekun.”
Taken aback by the overly polite greeting, Baekun quickly returned the gesture.
“I am Baekun. I have heard much about the Lodge Leader of the Daeungbang.”
The brief, awkward silence was broken by Muryang.
“Well, that’s enough with the greetings. Let’s get to the main topic.”
Not only Heuk Cheolsan, who had been abruptly summoned, but also Jo Yangtae, who had not yet heard the reason for the meeting, focused on Muryang’s words.
“Soon, we will go to war.”
“War… you say?”
Heuk Cheolsan’s face hardened.
Jo Yangtae also swallowed dryly and asked.
“Against whom, so suddenly? An enemy so great… that we must join forces?”
That was the crux of it.
The Red Bridge Faction and the Daeungbang.
The two powers were uniting under Muryang.
An enemy that required both factions to combine their full strength would be no ordinary power.
Instead of answering, Muryang pointed to a spot on the map.
Not Heumju, nor Uiju, but the heart of Guangxi Province. Nannyeong.
“The Yu Clan of Nannyeong.”
At that name, Jo Yangtae could not hide his shock.
“The Yu Clan? Do you mean the Yu Clan of Nannyeong that I know? The one famous for dealing in silk and medicinal herbs for three generations, and for their benevolence……”
Muryang let out a hollow laugh at Jo Yangtae’s naive suspicion.
“That benevolence is their most cunning disguise.”
“A disguise?”
“Those bastards create fake medicine that slowly poisons people, distributing it secretly through the Heumju port.”
“What!”
“That, that’s…!”
Jo Yangtae and Heuk Cheolsan were simultaneously struck with shock.
But the Yu Clan’s reputation for good deeds was too deeply ingrained in their minds to be easily believed.
Even if the words came from Muryang himself.
“Perhaps. Are you sure you’re not mistaken? The Yu Clan has been performing good deeds for three generations.”
Heuk Cheolsan nodded in agreement with Jo Yangtae’s words.
“Indeed, their benevolence is renowned not only in Nannyeong but all the way to Uiju. Is it not possible that you are mistaken?”
Muryang closed his eyes for a moment, having expected this reaction.
It only meant their disguise was that thorough.
A false reputation built over a hundred years.
Shattering it would take more than a few words.
“A hundred years ago, they were the remnants left behind in the Central Plains by the Demonic Cult. They call themselves the ‘seeds’.”
At Muryang’s calm declaration, the air in the room froze.
Jo Yangtae and Heuk Cheolsan stared blankly at Muryang, their mouths agape.
The Demonic Cult.
The story was so surreal that they couldn't even find the words to argue.
“……”
Muryang offered no further explanation. Instead, he glanced at Baekun.
Baekun took out the fake medicine spread by the Yu Clan from his robes and placed it on the table.
“Try it.”
“What is this?”
“The great medicine they sell.”
Muryang pointed at the pill with his finger.
“It’s not good to have too much, so just break off a tiny piece and touch it to the tip of your tongue.”
The two lodge leaders eyed the pill with suspicion.
They carefully broke off a piece the size of a fingernail and placed it in their mouths.
A moment later.
“……!”
“Th-this is…!”
The moment the powder touched his tongue, Heuk Cheolsan’s brow furrowed.
At first, it tasted sweet and fragrant.
A strange vitality surged through him, as if all the fatigue in his body was being washed away in an instant.
But that was only for a moment.
‘This energy is……!’
Heuk Cheolsan hastily circulated his internal energy to trace the energy spreading through his body.
What he had thought was vitality was a malevolent energy that was forcibly burning his own life force.
The energy flowed through his veins, subtly but surely eroding his internal energy.
It was a minute reaction he might have missed without Muryang’s explanation.
And what was most terrifying was the intense urge to take more of the medicine that flashed through his mind.
“Ugh!”
Jo Yangtae also gagged and quickly rinsed his mouth.
“Th-this is…!”
“Do you feel it?”
Muryang’s voice was chilling.
“That is the true nature of the ‘medicine’ they sell. A poison that gives a moment of pleasure and plants an eternity of addiction.”
Heuk Cheolsan thought silently for a moment before speaking.
“…I have confirmed the existence of the medicine. And also, that you are serious about eradicating them, my lord.”
Jo Yangtae spoke next.
“…I, and the Red Bridge Faction, have decided to follow you. If you say you will strike the Yu Clan, we will trust you and follow. However… we need ‘proof that this medicine was distributed by the Yu Clan’. Even if we eliminate them and claim they are ‘villains,’ the world will not see it that way.”
Without concrete proof, even if they defeated the Yu Clan, the world would see it as the underworld attacking a reputable family.
Muryang was not ignorant of this fact.
“Don’t worry. While you are leading your forces to Nannyeong, I will secure definitive proof.”
The plan was already in place.
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