WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 188
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Act 27: Purge
Contrary to expectations that the Great Exorcist Order would go straight to war after a brief breather, it entered a quiet lull.
The damage from the brief clash had not been severe.
There were quite a few injuries, but virtually no deaths.
It was a campaign that could be considered virtually free of human casualties.
Azure Dragon Hall and the dokkaebi clan had absorbed the Grand Burial Ghost Prison's onslaught on the Gwisu Temple front, while the Zheng Empire had engaged in something close to threatening bluster on the border front from the start.
For a war that had erased Cheoryang Thunder Gate from history and killed a Nascent Soul Realm great demonic cultivator, it came to an eerily quiet end.
Then, a few days later.
Haeil summoned three people to the Order Lord's office.
Azure Dragon Hall Master Ise. Winged Dragon Hall Master Woo Yu-hui. And Hooked Array Hall Master Banho.
All were young Hall Masters under two hundred years old.
Woo Yu-hui stood expressionless, while Banho alone wore a dissatisfied look.
Given his combative nature, this lull clearly did not sit well with him.
The moment Ise entered, Banho's displeased expression abruptly changed.
“The hero of Gwisu Temple has arrived!”
“Sorry I'm late, Order Lord. It's been a while, Hall Master Ban.”
Haeil flicked his hand as if to say it was nothing.
Banho's booming laughter echoed through the office.
“So Hall Master I was the one who killed Bi Hyeongrang? Kahaha! Truly impressive!”
Banho kept clapping his huge, sole-like palms, though they did not even make a sound.
“Hall Master I, would you mind if I gave your back a friendly pat?”
“Yes. Just don't put primordial qi into it.”
The tiger's palm thumped Ise's back.
Even without primordial qi, Banho possessed enough raw strength to make Ise's body jolt.
While Ise rubbed his back, Banho asked Haeil, “Order Lord, why have you called us here?”
“There are a few things I want to say. First, Hall Master I, you worked hard. Still, I can't quite say you did well. How is it that even your recklessness resembles that man's so perfectly?”
“I'm sorry for disregarding your instructions.”
“Forget it. I expected it from the moment I sent you, and thanks to you, things went more smoothly. I'm just glad you're safe.”
“...Yes. But Bi Hyeongrang's soul was not sent on. Do you have any idea why?”
Haeil watched Ise for a moment before sending him a voice transmission.
- I will explain that later, when we are alone.
Then he added aloud, “Don't worry. It happens sometimes.”
“I understand.”
Haeil pushed forward a pile of Message Talismans on the low table.
There appeared to be dozens of them.
“They are letters of surrender. The Zheng Empire's cultivation factions sent them. There is even one from the New Martial Sect. Every one of them was sent through the back door.”
They had been sent without the Zheng Empire's knowledge.
Banho snorted.
“What spineless wretches. They dared betray us, and now they beg for their lives?”
Ise skimmed several of the letters.
“They say they will join us if war breaks out, provided we guarantee their factions' safety... It sounds as though they intend to remain attached to the Zheng Empire until then.”
“That is about right. War has not broken out yet, after all, and if they move first, the Zheng Empire may retaliate. They intend to pretend cooperation with the Pill Altar Sect, then betray it only after we attack.”
Ise scoffed at such thoroughly petty conduct.
In any case, he could not bring himself to like the Zheng Empire's people.
“What is the Pill Altar Sect doing?”
“Gathering its forces. The fire is at their feet, but they likely intend to at least bare their teeth while trapped in the jar.”
Surrender was not an option for them.
To surrender, they would have to offer up the head of their Sect Master, a Nascent Soul Realm great cultivator, at the very least.
The Pill Altar Sect was its Sect Master.
There was no great cultivator in the world who would offer up their own head.
“Now. Each of you, tell me what you think. If you were the ones making the decision, what would you do?”
The three Hall Masters did not understand why the Order Lord was asking this, but Banho spoke first under his urging gaze.
“There will be no negotiations. One does not leave the seeds of future trouble behind.”
“And what does Hall Master I think?”
“I think similarly. But we should punish only those who directly participated in the war. If they all offer their heads and surrender quietly, their clans may be preserved.”
“You know that will not be possible, do you not?”
“That is not my concern.”
At that firm answer, Haeil let out a faint sigh and shifted his gaze.
“Hall Master Woo.”
“Just kill them all.”
Their words differed somewhat in tone, but their intentions were all the same.
Haeil pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Every one of you has such a temper...”
Ise tilted his head.
“They attacked first. Is there any reason to show them mercy?”
“The Pill Altar Sect is still a major Nascent Soul-level sect. Of course, they cannot stand against us alone, but if the whole Zheng Empire gathers around them, it will become quite troublesome.”
“Even if it is troublesome, it must be done. We should not neglect rooting out the source.”
“The problem is that if the war grows, the people beneath us will be hurt.”
The three young Hall Masters turned their eyes to the Order Lord. Haeil continued calmly, as though imparting a lesson.
“Those who lead must not take the lives of those who follow them lightly. Each and every one is a precious life. If you do not think so, you are no different from Bi Hyeongrang.”
“Kahahaha! You are really cursing us out.”
Banho let out a laugh that scraped his throat and clapped again.
His words had merit, but Ise found them difficult to accept.
He believed that leaving behind future trouble because one feared immediate losses was ultimately a way of burdening later generations with that debt.
Still, the Order Lord had summoned them separately to give this lesson amid his busy schedule. Ise simply took it to heart.
Rather than argue, he chose to ask a question.
“By the way, Order Lord.”
“Speak.”
“Why have you gathered only us three to say this?”
“Because you are the next generation who will lead the Great Exorcist Order's future. You must know how to govern and treat people.”
His words sounded like those of an old cultivator preparing to retire, so Ise asked, “Are you planning to retire once the war is over? You should have plenty of lifespan left.”
“Not immediately. But it will happen soon enough. It is time for a generational change.”
“It seems like a hasty decision.”
“It is. But I need to let the other Hall Masters devote themselves to cultivation as well. Will you have them work until their lives run out? At their current pace, Hong Mi-hee and Ahsan will barely be able to break through to the Nascent Soul Realm even if they focus solely on cultivation. The others need great fortuitous encounters. Just as you look after your people, I look after mine.”
Haeil shrugged.
Then he added that he would give them sufficient time, and that he intended to eliminate every threat before then.
“Other sects have elders and supreme elders. They have retired, but they are patriarchs with wisdom and experience. That is the path we will take.”
“I understand.”
The other two Hall Masters also nodded in understanding.
“We will thoroughly examine the factions that surrender and determine the severity of their crimes. We will separate those who must be excluded, and once that sorting is complete, we will strike the Pill Altar Sect.”
Haeil's gaze passed over the three in turn.
“Before that, there is something you must do.”
* * *
The New Martial Sect was in the midst of internal strife.
While sending a letter of surrender to the Great Exorcist Order, they were also planning to immediately flee to the Pill Altar Sect of the Zheng Empire and seek its protection.
It was not a matter of having a foot in both camps.
The surrender letter was only meant to buy time.
Both Seolbaek and So Hong-ji knew the Great Exorcist Order would never forgive them.
Haeil was a gentle and merciful person. But the Great Exorcist Order he led was also a sect that could be endlessly cold toward its enemies.
“Take only what matters! We have no time!”
Seolbaek urged the sect disciples on.
Everything that would not fit inside a storage pouch was left behind.
They also abandoned most of the Qi Condensation Realm cultivators and their mortal relatives.
They could not evade the Great Exorcist Order's pursuit while dragging so much baggage along.
The sobs of those about to be torn from their families drifted from all over the sect, but no one looked back.
“Has there still been no reply from the Pill Altar Sect?”
At Seolbaek's shout, his subordinates could not answer.
“Damn it! What exactly is the Pill Altar Sect Master planning?”
Their letter requesting an escort force to help them defect had been ignored.
Of course, Seolbaek understood.
The Pill Altar Sect was not in a position to enter enemy territory for the sake of merely two Core Formation Realm cultivators.
It was already struggling to fortify its headquarters, reinforce its warding barriers, and gather its forces.
In the end, the New Martial Sect cultivators took only what they could hastily pack and departed through the mountain gate.
But before they had escaped very far, the New Martial Sect's procession froze in place.
“Where are you in such a hurry to go, Seolbaek?”
Great Exorcist Order cultivators had already surrounded them on all sides.
Ise. Woo Yu-hui. Banho. And the cultivators of the halls they led.
The Great Exorcist Order's three rising stars had personally come.
Ise stepped forward and spoke.
“As promised, we came to collect your head. You washed it clean, did you not?”
“You...!”
“Oh, the Chief Master asked me to pass along a message. The Chief Master sends apologies for not being able to come personally. But the Chief Master picked someone good at cutting heads, so do not be disappointed.”
Seolbaek ground his teeth and glared at Ise.
Three Core Formation Realm cultivators. In terms of numbers, it was not an impossible gap to overcome if they fought.
But one of the three was a genius on the verge of the Nascent Soul Realm, and another was a monster who had killed a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator.
That must be why only three hunters had been sent despite the Great Exorcist Order's ample strength.
“Scatter! Head for the Pill Altar Sect!”
Seolbaek shot forward the moment he shouted. So Hong-ji split off in the opposite direction.
Woo Yu-hui asked Ise, “Which one?”
“I will take Seolbaek. I have a debt to settle.”
“All right. Then I will take So Hong-ji.”
“Kahahaha! You are leaving the Foundation Establishment Realm riffraff to me? That hurts!”
“I will not yield. Settle it with Hall Master Woo.”
The instant Ise finished speaking, he launched himself forward.
Banho turned to Woo Yu-hui, but she did not even answer as she set off after So Hong-ji.
“...”
It seemed he had been left out.
Banho wiped his apricot-colored nose and bitterly went after Kang Ihyeon.
* * *
Seolbaek fled at full speed.
His white hair and white beard streamed as he threw away all the pride and dignity of a great cultivator in his escape.
But even at full speed, he could not shake Ise's pursuit.
Wind gathered before his eyes, and Ise appeared.
Wind-Gold Submerging Thread immediately coiled around Seolbaek's body.
“Ghk!”
Seolbaek gritted his teeth and unleashed ice-cold spell arts, forcing away the primordial qi wrapped around him like threads.
The entire space froze in an instant.
Mountain peaks, trees, and even the air were trapped in blocks of ice.
But Ise raised Yeowol and drew in the cold like a current of water.
Then he transformed what he had swallowed into flames and spat it back out.
The frozen space was devoured by scarlet fire.
“Argh!”
Seolbaek's scream burst from the flames.
Once more, Wind-Gold Submerging Thread pierced Seolbaek's body and coiled around his Golden Core.
Seolbaek clenched his teeth and tried to protect the Golden Core, but under the brutal force of primordial qi, with a crunch, it gradually began to crack apart.
At that moment.
Young Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators charged through the flames at Ise.
They were familiar faces. Ise narrowed his eyes as he recognized them.
“You are...”
“It has been a long time, Senior.”
They were pureblood cultivators from his own cohort.
Ju Guyeon and his subordinates.
The ones who had bullied Buchun at the Training Compound on their first day of entry and been taught a lesson by Ise.
The flowers that had once grown delicately beneath Seolbaek's shade had now reached the early Foundation Establishment Realm.
“Ju Guyeon.”
“I am honored you remember me.”
Ise clenched his hand in the air. Primordial qi constricted Seolbaek's dantian.
Crack. Seolbaek's scream rang loud enough to shake the ground.
“You should know your strength is not enough. Did you interfere because you want to die?”
“We merely wish to protect the one we serve.”
“...”
They had acted immaturely in the past, but now they had become steadfast cultivators in their own right.
Faced with their resolve, which was prepared even for death, Ise turned his gaze toward the struggling Seolbaek.
In the past, Ise had believed this man was steeped in the privileged mentality of a pureblood.
But now he knew that was not the case.
Seolbaek himself had not been born at headquarters, and even when trying to recruit Ise, he had made all manner of excuses.
The pureblood ideology he had championed was merely a means to gather and bind his own forces within the Great Exorcist Order.
He had instilled a sense of pureblood privilege in young, promising cultivators and bound them tightly together, laying the groundwork for them to be loyal to an individual rather than the organization.
The foolish victims of that scheme were the people standing before Ise now.
Ise decided to grant the foolish but promising cultivators, each of whom had displayed their own Dao heart, a single mercy.
“For the sake of our old ties, I will spare you once. Go back. Seek refuge in the Zheng Empire, or hide away and live as independent cultivators.”
“I am sorry.”
Even as Ise's spiritual pressure crushed him and forced blood from his mouth, Ju Guyeon spoke clearly.
“I have already betrayed my sect once. I cannot betray the person I must serve a second time. Please release him.”
“...”
Ise looked down at him for a moment.
Then he shattered Seolbaek's Golden Core.
“I will praise your spirit. You are certainly better than Seolbaek.”
As Seolbaek's dantian ruptured and he collapsed, the cultivators charged forward with cries of anguish.
“But you are no longer Qi Condensation Realm chicks whom I would spare for throwing a tantrum.”
Before they could even sense it, Wind-Gold Submerging Thread wrapped around their necks.
Without managing even a single act of resistance, the New Martial Sect cultivators' heads fell in a heap.
There were only nine letters one should utter upon meeting an enemy one could not oppose.
The price of forgetting the lesson Ise had gone to such lengths to teach them was paid only with their lives.
Ise cut off Seolbaek's head above the pool of blood.
By the time the three Hall Masters regrouped, Ise held Seolbaek's head, while Woo Yu-hui held So Hong-ji's.
“...Did the Order Lord perhaps instruct us to cut off their heads and bring them back? I blew off Kang Ihyeon's upper body. What should I do?”
Seeing Banho fret in confusion, Ise playfully added, “Then go back and collect the lower half, at least.”
“W-Would that be best?”
At Banho's serious contemplation, Woo Yu-hui let out a quiet laugh and added, “We are supposed to hand over all the storage pouches.”
“Why?”
Ise tilted his head.
Spoils of war normally belonged to those who completed the mission.
“They did not tell us not to inspect their contents, right?”
“Right.”
Wondering whether there might be another reason, Ise examined the storage pouch with his divine sense and understood.
‘What a crafty old fiend.’
Ise twisted his lips at the dharma artifact he found inside Seolbaek's storage pouch.
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