Chapter 983: Tears, Drop by Drop (4)

The scale of the Central Headquarters of the Evil Path Thug Grand Coalition, located in Taehwa County, Guangxi, was truly vast.

The grounds themselves were a broad stretch of land, and on top of it they had erected dozens of tall pavilions—skyscrapers.

It got to the point that even Seo Ha-gaek, the world’s number one traveler, stopped by the Central Headquarters of the Evil Path Thug Grand Coalition to look around and leave an evaluation.

“Once you step into the Central Headquarters, skyscrapers that stretch high into the sky block the heavens like rugged mountain ridges.

Even though it is a man-made landscape, it overwhelms you—truly something remarkable—and a breathtaking view you ought to see once in your life and marvel at.”

They must have felt so proud of that review that they hung wooden plaques all over the place and carved those lines into them.

That was just how Evil Path types were by nature.

In Qing’s hometown jargon, they were bastards with a swollen need for validation, always starving for recognition—weren’t those exactly the people of the Evil Path?

But what Evil Path types “recognized” each other for was never anything decent. It was things like how vicious and cruel someone was, or who could puff up their pride over the most trivial detail.

Even the organization’s name came from that kind of deficiency, and “Evil Path Thug Grand Coalition”—so long it was annoying just to say—was the pure expression of that craving.

In general, the less academic achievement someone had, the more they loved long, grandiose names.

Anyway, for Evil Path types like that, a nationwide celebrity praising the scenery of their Central Headquarters was the sort of boon you could hang up with pride.

But the evaluation the Evil Path Alliance displayed was only part of it.

The omitted later portion went like this.

“However, beneath the towering spires that pierce the heavens, no people can be seen—lonely and desolate.

And the people who are visible all have vicious eyes and filthy conduct; before one can even speak of the public’s heart, this is a demon realm where the threat to one’s own person is severe.”

That lower paragraph—well, of course. The Evil Path Alliance’s Central Headquarters was a den of demonic masters, so it was only natural.

But “no people can be seen beneath the spires”?

That was because they’d slammed tall buildings onto a huge property, but they didn’t actually have that many coalition members to move in.

Thanks to that, they could offer extravagant “benefits,” like handing an entire six-story pavilion over to a single low-tier combat unit.

Thanks to that, too, the more senior you were, the more you used the lower floors, and the very youngest ended up living in the top “VIP level,” of all things.

Because living high up was inconvenient...

And the neighboring buildings were all skyscrapers too, so even at the top floor your view didn’t really open up...

Of course, it wasn’t that they lacked people. They were only roomy because they had way too many pavilions and way too many pointless floors. The number of resident martial warriors at headquarters far exceeded the Martial Alliance.

Which was only natural.

The Martial Alliance was nothing more than a horizontal coalition of righteous orthodox sects (though some sects were more “horizontal” than others).

But the Evil Path Alliance was effectively a superior governing body sitting in a vertically higher position over the Evil Path sects that joined it, so it had no choice but to maintain its own armed force.

For that reason, at the top of the highest nine-story pavilion in the center of the Evil Path Alliance—eerily devoid of footsteps despite the sheer headcount—a furious roar suddenly thundered out.

“You useless piece of shit! You crawl back in that state and say what? You’re telling me you still let Wang Daeyang or whatever that bastard’s name is come back alive? Is that something to brag about!?”

A man sitting on a long chair made no attempt to hide his rage. His voice was sharp, his eyes savage, and veins bulged along his neck and across his forehead.

It was the fury of Bu Anpyeong, Paejon—the Grand Leader of the Evil Path Thug Grand Coalition.

Of course Bu Anpyeong was bound to blow his top.

This had been a chance to seize the Greenwood Bandits.

Not some leftover stragglers, either.

To take the Greenwood Bandits meant taking the entire chain of mountain ridges running along the Central Plains. Human resources and material resources would move through those ridges—and the profits you could reap were not a small thing.

And while he was at it, he’d intended to crush the righteous factions’ arrogance flat, too—he could have swept away that righteous “holy star” everyone was praising.

But what was the result?

Wang Daeyang lived, but he’d become the world’s biggest idiot—an outright laughingstock—so now even if Wang Daeyang screamed about revenge, he couldn’t get the same sympathy votes as before.

And he hadn’t managed to teach that righteous “holy star” brat a lesson, either.

Not only had he failed to stoke the serious suspicion of seed-extraction demonic arts—he was on the verge of having it buried under two shocking pieces of news: the Blood Cult same-sex rumor, and the Heavenly Flower Sword crossdressing-man rumor.

And on top of that—

Fine. He could let the first one slide.

The reason he could “let it slide” was that, even to Bu Anpyeong, the Heavenly Flower Sword’s argument had been genuinely persuasive.

According to what those Blood Cult bastards tattled, the Heavenly Flower Sword fought two Mystical Realm masters with seed-extraction demonic arts, turned one into a cripple, and escaped...

But seed-extraction demonic arts were originally an invincible martial art in a one-on-one. How could it possibly handle two Mystical Realm masters?

But if it had been ambushed in the middle of that act—if, as a result, it had prioritized rescuing and fleeing with an injured lover... ugh.

And if it was Blood Cult bastards, they could absolutely commit something that filthy and horrific.

The problem was the second one.

The Heavenly Flower Sword didn’t back down even after hearing Paejon’s name. No—she talked back, insisting she was right and the senior was wrong, and she hit back head-on.

No matter how bad the relationship between righteous and evil was supposed to be, was she really going to openly trample the face of the Evil Path Alliance’s Grand Leader—someone in the upper ranks of the Ten Great Masters?

A green, baby-faced junior—some brat far younger, somewhere between the age of a daughter and a granddaughter—had basically cursed him out to his face.

And beyond that, above all—

“You useless piece of shit! That moron cut off your arm because some brat said so? You should’ve taken his head clean off! Hah—some demonic master of the dark world, acting like he’s what. Why. You bastard. Because there were a lot of eyes on you, you thought if you played merciful you’d look like some kind of chivalrous hero?”

“If I’d taken Young Master Wang’s head in that situation, the event hosted by our Evil Path Thug Grand Coalition would’ve become a laughingstock...”

“Hah! When have we not been a laughingstock? Brain-dead idiots getting our asses kicked by the righteous factions every damn day—and I keep saying we should even change that name, but what the hell is ‘Evil Path Thug Grand Coalition’ anyway? It looks like some illiterate bastard just babbled characters until it got long. Even the trash who tremble in front of our blades probably laughed at us in their heads, and over something that stupid you cut off your arm, you useless piece of shit. Tsk tsk. And this thing is supposed to be my subordinate...”

Bu Anpyeong kept spewing curses.

The patrol officer’s eyes flushed red.

Had he made a decision for the sake of the Evil Path Alliance, only to be met with nothing but scolding—so his bitterness was starting to show on its own?

“Grand Leader...!”

In truth, it was the opposite.

He didn’t care about the Evil Path Alliance’s “face” at all—he was furious because the patrol officer should have protected his own arm, because that arm mattered more. And in front of that fury, the patrol officer was struggling to contain the deep, rising emotion that boiled up inside him.

Bu Anpyeong had always been that kind of man. That was precisely why the patrol officer had willingly cut off his own arm.

“Tsk. You useless piece of shit. Go to the Medical Hall and deal with that arm. Use my name and ask for an Incarnation Pill. You’ve got to keep whatever’s left from rotting.”

“...Thank you.”

The patrol officer answered in a half-choked voice, then carefully withdrew, closed the door, and disappeared.

Haaaaa.

Bu Anpyeong let out a deep sigh, then scowled hard and asked.

“Hey, Chief Strategist—what the hell happened? You said if we used filial piety as the banner, those righteous bastards wouldn’t be able to move.”

“It was my mistake. There were rumors that the Heavenly Flower Sword’s mind-reading wasn’t ordinary, but I thought it was just backbiting from the ones who got played.”

“Hah. So what now? What happens?”

“Nothing changes. Fortunately Patrol Officer Seop made a major decision for us, so even if the shape of it got a bit ugly, isn’t the Sell the body to bury the father revenge contract still valid? In the first place, whether it succeeds was never that important.”

Making the announcement in front of everyone was what mattered. Whether revenge was truly carried out against the Heavenly Flower Sword afterward wasn’t particularly important.

What mattered was rebuilding the Greenwood Bandits under Paejon’s name. If the contract went through, great. If it didn’t, they could still build Paejon’s Greenwood Bandits under the pretext of “growing their strength.”

“Chief Strategist, still—doesn’t it piss you off? That Great Matron, too. If you’ve gotten old, you ought to wash your face with gold powder and go retire somewhere, not block a junior’s road like this. That’s why I have no choice but to join hands with the Blood Cult. Isn’t that right?”

“It’s a somewhat ugly excuse, but I agree.”

“So, is there any way to pay that senior Great Matron back? Teacher and disciple together—those two flip a man’s insides over. You know, the thing you’re good at, Chief Strategist. You needle them gently, but you don’t cross the line, so they have to swallow it and endure.”

“I was going to bring that up.”

Bu Anpyeong brightened and clapped—CLAP CLAP CLAP.

“Of course it’s Chief Strategist. You’re my Zhang Liang. If you ever get caught somewhere, cooperate without hesitation—no, even lick their shoes if you have to and betray me pathetically, just make sure you come back in one piece.”

“I was going to do that anyway. You know me.”

“Keuheuheu—Chief Strategist really would.”

“You flatter me.”

“So? You’ve got a lead?”

At that, Chief Strategist Officer Sun Ung cleared his throat once, then put a single word on his lips.

“Sasa.”

“Sasa? That runaway bastard?”

“Yes. I hear Sasa opened a large clinic in Jagwi County and has been practicing charitable medicine. Around there, they say people praise Sasa like a Medical Immortal in the flesh.”

Bu Anpyeong asked back like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“No—That demonic master bastard who used to kidnap people and feed them to snakes suddenly starts charity work? Medical Immortal, my ass. Are all the Medical Immortals dead?”

“It seems Sasa has repented, in Sasa’s own way.”

Hmph. Bu Anpyeong snorted.

“Grand Leader. Once an Evil Path thug, forever an Evil Path thug, isn’t that how it is? If Sasa asked your permission and then stepped down, that’d be one thing. But unauthorized abandonment of duty at this level—if it isn’t desertion, it’s betrayal. And desertion is originally punished with the harshest penalty. By the Evil Path’s law, traitors aren’t forgiven.”

“You’re saying we should catch Sasa and kill Sasa? But how is that something we can use to needle them? Sasa’s a former demonic master anyway. That Great Matron—or her disciple bitch—do you think they’d even blink?”

“Of course, if Sasa won’t come back, then Sasa betrayed our Evil Path Thug Grand Coalition, and we must show what happens to traitors. But that’s the story if Sasa is a traitor. If Sasa isn’t a traitor—shouldn’t we grant a reward instead?”

“Not a traitor?”

Sun Ung smiled softly.

In his own mind it was a gentle smile, but to Bu Anpyeong it was a smile so vile there was nothing viler.

Which was, in fact, vile—one of the reasons he cherished Sun Ung as his Chief Strategist Officer.

“Wouldn’t it be fine for our Evil Path Thug Grand Coalition to do one good deed for the world, too? Our Evil Path thug has already planted a foothold in the Priestess Order’s territory, so we can promote Sasa to an official branch chief and send an escort unit, can’t we?”

Sasa hadn’t betrayed the Evil Path Alliance.

Sasa had gone to pioneer Jagwi County, which was Priestess Order territory. So now that Sasa had a big clinic open and a famous reputation, the idea was to naturally hang the Evil Path Thug Grand Coalition signboard over it.

And if Sasa refused?

Who in the world would choose death over a promotion, when those were the options?

And if Sasa chose death anyway, then you could just kill Sasa for real.

A clinic rumored to be kind because it provided medical care—gets killed by the Evil Path right in the front yard of the sect that’s considered the owner of that territory. And brutally, at that.

How badly would that damage their face?

If Sasa chose the promotion?

Then it would immediately become the establishment of an official Jagwi County branch for the Evil Path Alliance, and they could pack combat units in until they were bursting.

How uncomfortable and wounded would you feel, having them settle like that in your front yard?

And since Sasa’s clinic was already doing charity work, the Evil Path Thug Grand Coalition could say it was “doing good deeds,” provide the funding, and run it.

Then it would become a sanctuary the righteous factions couldn’t touch—because they were so obsessed with “justification.”

“Sanctuary? I’m pretty sure last time you said revenge was a sanctuary—”

“Ahem. We’d actually be doing charity work, so would they really drive us out without question, just because we’re Evil Path? If they do, all the better. Couldn’t we shout once about how this is the righteous factions’ hypocrisy?”

“Oh.”

Either way, it was profit.

If Sasa chose death.

—If the Priestess Order lets Sasa die?

Their face takes a direct hit for allowing a good clinic to be murdered.

—If the Priestess Order tries to protect Sasa?

We can file an official protest to the Priestess Order, and we can spread Sasa’s past evil deeds and shave their face down by accusing them of defending a demonic master like that.

If Sasa became branch chief.

—If the Priestess Order allows the branch to remain?

It’s the formal establishment of an official Jagwi County branch for the Evil Path Alliance, and through that they can swallow a strategic key point along the middle Yangtze without lifting a finger.

—If they drive out the clinic branch?

It’s charity work for the people—are they really going to drive it out just because righteous and evil differ? We can curse their hypocrisy as much as we want.

Bu Anpyeong couldn’t hold back his admiration.

“How do you come up with such dog-shit thoughts...!”

“You flatter me.”

“Good idea. Let’s do it right now.”

And so Sasa’s past—Sasa’s karma—was turning its blade point toward Sasa.

Truly, regrettably so.