Book 12: Chapter 16: The Dawn of the Battlefield

On the road connecting the Imperial Capital and Luoyang.

On the road connecting the Imperial Capital, the administrative heart of the State of Zhongyuan, and Luoyang, the economic heart of North China.

For some reason.

Carriages had stopped moving and were pulled over to the left and right.

Even the leaders of the merchant caravans, who would normally vent their frustration until their mouths went dry, even the upper class, who would normally pick fights to show off their authority, even the martial artists, who would normally start fidgeting with their weapons right away, were all silent.

“…….”

“…….”

“…….”

“Hyah!”

Horsemen were riding ahead on the road, where a silence as heavy as the darkness before dawn had settled.

“Hyah!”

Since those urging the armored warhorses were wearing armor that looked extraordinary at a glance although it was quite a sight, none of those who pulled over made eye contact with them.

The flags hanging on their backs spoke for the reason instead.

‘Luoyang Sword Family.’

As the mounted warriors passed by in the lead soon, a procession of dozens of armored carriages specially made by the Luoyang Sword Family appeared behind them.

And escorted by dozens of armored carriages in front and behind a six-horse carriage that was far heavier than those carriages was running.

Kakakakak—!

The steel wheels of the pitch-black six-horse carriage rubbed against the paving stones, splashing loud sparks.

It was a bizarre creation made in imitation of the iron-clad fortress that the family's patriarch had built for the Medicine Fairy.

It was the Second Young Master's Black Iron Citadel.

* * *

Inside the Black Iron Citadel.

Creak.

As if revealing the master's uncomfortable feelings the armor surrounding the burn-covered hand of the Second Young Master let out a metallic sound.

The emotion felt from the Second Young Master, Yeon Ja-cheong, who was looking at the dark scenery outside the blinds was clear anxiety.

“…….”

Contact from the Luoyang Sword Family's intelligence department, which had been cooperating obediently, had been cut off.

Since the Second Young Master and his strategists had been hearing the situation in Luoyang in detail through them their frustration was even greater.

“…It could just be a normal delay. Doesn't that happen rather often in the intelligence department?”

“That is true.”

The Second Young Master's strategists were racking their brains while reading his countenance.

“But isn't it strange that absolutely no one from the intelligence department is contacting us?”

“…If so, could it be that our cooperators in the intelligence department switched sides?”

The strategists frowned.

“Not just one or two, but all of them switched sides at once?”

“If our situation in Luoyang worsened, there is a possibility that—” creak.

At the chilling sound coming from the Second Young Master's hand, the strategist who was saying what should not be said hurriedly shut his mouth.

“…….”

“…….”

An uncomfortable silence returned to the carriage once again.

* * *

The Luoyang Sword Family.

A safehouse of the intelligence department.

‘…Where did things start to go wrong?’

Inside the dark room without a single oil lamp.

Empty wine bottles were rolling around.

The sealed room was filled with tobacco smoke.

A middle-aged man sat at the desk, clutching his head.

‘If everyone stepped up, we could cover the eyes and ears of the Supreme Executive Council.’

He was the Director of the Second Bureau of the Luoyang Sword Family's intelligence department.

‘I was confident that we could delay their decision-making and intervention as much as possible amid the chaos in the city of Luoyang…!’

In the Supreme Executive Council, whose identity could not be revealed to the outside, there was a serious defect latent due to that very reason.

Although the Institution was left out of the plan.

They had the Yeon family blood relatives and the elders.

He had judged that it would be enough to succeed.

‘Was it arrogance…?’

He recalled what he, what they, had done until now.

In the beginning, it started with omitting a single, most trivial piece of information.

The Supreme Executive Council did not notice.

So next, he omitted a somewhat larger piece of information.

Those who wished to avoid the surveillance of the Supreme Executive Council were numerous inside and outside the Sword Family.

The reward for the intentional omission of information came as a massive financial gain.

‘…I was complacent.’

Because nothing had happened repeatedly.

He thought it would be fine this time as well.

But it was not the case this time.

“…Director Two.”

From outside, his close aide tapped lightly on the door and reported.

“The Central Inspection Department is looking for you, Director.”

“…….”

Director Two did not reply, and since his aide was not in a position to receive an answer, he backed off.

“…Damn it.”

Director Two glared at the door in the darkness.

He prayed desperately that the door would not open.

He prayed that time would stop at this very moment.

Slide.

However, contrary to his wish.

The door opened all too easily.

“Director Two.”

With her back to the light illuminating the hallway.

A grim reaper with white hair and white eyes made her appearance.

“It is the command of the Supreme Executive Council.”

Dokgo Ya-yeon, the Chief of the Central Inspection Department, showed a document and unilaterally notified him without a single expression.

“All of your authority is suspended as of this moment, and your person will be detained by the Central Inspection Department.”

“…….”

Director Two silently raised his wine cup.

But the cup was already empty.

He tilted the wine bottle, but the bottle was also empty.

Crash!

Although the wine bottle he threw hit the floor and shattered into pieces.

“…….”

Dokgo Ya-yeon, the Chief of the Central Inspection Department, did not even twitch an eyebrow.

“…It seems I am not the first?”

His eyes turned toward Dokgo Ya-yeon.

The bloodstains splattered on her clothes and face stood out even more clearly, in mismatch with her characteristic expressionless face.

“…From the beginning. Was it all the Eldest Young Master's trap? Targeting us?”

Though he only felt it now.

The method of throwing bait and catching those hidden beneath the surface, as if fishing.

Was all too similar to 'that day' which he had only seen in records.

“…The Bloody History.”

A hollow laugh leaked from his mouth.

“In the end, just like the rumors that circulated in the past. That great purge was the work of the Eldest Young Master.”

“Perhaps so.”

At the mention of the Eldest Young Master, Dokgo Ya-yeon's mouth finally opened.

“However, what is certain is.”

Looking down at him sitting at the desk as she spoke, Dokgo Ya-yeon's eyes held a clear light of contempt.

“Regardless of what the Eldest Young Master's intentions were, the end you face is what you chose for yourselves.”

“…….”

The end he chose for himself.

Director Two, who had been looking up at her with a dazed face, lowered his head.

* * *

Inside the running Black Iron Citadel.

“…My Lord.”

Among the strategists who were reading his countenance, one hesitated before opening his mouth.

“…If you are curious about the battle situation in Luoyang, how about asking 'that man'?”

On behalf of the Second Young Master, Yeon Ja-cheong, another strategist asked.

“…That man?”

The strategist who spoke first pointed to the back with a grimace.

“I mean that man riding in the armored carriage behind us. The one wearing the skin of Han Myeong-hwi, the strategist of the Jiangnan Division…”

“Ah.”

Geum-jil.

He did not mention the name directly, but everyone understood who he was talking about.

“If it is him, wouldn't he be grasping the situation in Luoyang in real-time?”

Although they could not understand the principle.

Whatever sorcery it was, if it was Geum-jil who controlled the corpse puppet from afar.

He would surely be monitoring Luoyang as well.

“…Indeed.”

The permission of the Second Young Master, who was lost in thought for a moment, was granted.

The mounted warrior, who had approached the armored carriage behind upon receiving the order, returned and reported with a look as if he had seen something strange.

“It is…”

He hesitated for a moment before barely continuing his words.

“…I think you must check it yourself.”

One of the Second Young Master's strategists thumped his own chest in frustration.

“What on earth is it that makes you act like this?!”

“…Well.”

The mounted warrior replied in a tone of not knowing what to say or how to say it.

“…It seems the guest has died.”

The strategist who had thumped his chest spoke as if to ask what nonsense he was talking about.

“Wasn't he originally a corpse that reeked of rotting flesh anyway?!”

“No, well, it is like…”

The mounted warrior's pupils shook in confusion.

“I looked through the window, but he does not move at all. There is no answer even when called. He was already dead originally, but what I mean is that he seems completely dead now.”

At those words.

The Second Young Master's face twitched beneath his golden mask.

“Stop the procession.”

Screeech—!

Sparks flew from the braking systems of the carriages.

* * *

While everyone, including the Second Young Master Yeon Ja-cheong, watched, a warrior opened the door of the armored carriage.

“Kh…!”

The battle-hardened warrior backed away reflexively.

For a terrible stench, along with the buzzing sound of a swarm of flies, flowed out of the opened carriage door.

“Remove the blinds.”

At the Second Young Master Yeon Ja-cheong's command, the warrior frowned and pulled away the blinds.

“…Tsk.”

The Second Young Master's strategists turned their heads away.

Even from what was slightly revealed, the state of the carriage interior was horrific.

“Step aside.”

Snatching a lantern from among those who were hesitating, the Second Young Master approached the carriage himself.

As he looked inside the carriage, his face distorted beneath the golden mask.

“…….”

Han Myeong-hwi's body was shattered to pieces and horribly rotted away, with maggots swarming over it.

Like a puppet dropped on the floor and smashed because the puppeteer let go.

It was as if.

All the threads that were forcibly holding Han Myeong-hwi's corpse had been completely untied.

“For the one controlled by him to end up in this state…”

What did it mean that Geum-jil, who had promised to stop the Dark Venerable, had ended up in this state?

Holding their noses and frowning, the strategists easily deduced the situation.

“…He failed.”

If so.

What would the situation in Luoyang be like right now?

Grind.

The sound of grinding teeth leaked from the Second Young Master's mouth.

* * *

At that time, Luoyang.

Near the Valley of Sin, on the top floor of a certain luxurious pavilion.

The Second Young Master's mother, Grand Madame Ouyang, ended up breaking the fingernail she was nervously biting.

“…….”

Whether she had injured not only the tip of her nail but all the way to the root.

Thin lines of blood flowed down her finely powdered hand.

“Geum-jil…!”

Grinding her teeth.

In the same state as her son, she sprang up from her seat.

“Is there no contact at all from that fellow?!”

The Eldest Young Master's camp in the upper reaches of the Valley of Sin seemed momentarily confused, but soon regained its peace.

And after that.

A few slight tremors of the ground, as if a small earthquake had occurred, were all.

Indeed.

That was the end.

“Geum-jil, that fellow bragged so much…!”

At her screeching voice, both her subordinates and the leaders of the Six Men Association cowered and subtly avoided her eyes.

“Now that things have come to this, we can wait no longer…!”

Too much time had been delayed.

Now, it was becoming a situation where it would not be strange for the Supreme Executive Council to intervene at any moment.

Crimson murderous intent flashed from her eyes.

“Order all forces waiting in the lower reaches to march!”

At her ringing words, the bosses of the underworld expressed reluctance.

“T-That is…?!”

“What about the poison spread in the middle reaches?”

“Poison?”

Grand Madame Ouyang snapped in a sharp voice at the one who brought up the poison.

“You fool, are you still worrying about poison?! If that poison were meant to remain until now, it would have swept the lower reaches of the valley and turned Luoyang into hell by this time!”

Her words were logically correct, but.

“That may be true, but…”

The leaders of the Six Men Association did not seem very convinced.

The talk of poison was merely an excuse in the first place.

As the situation turned unfavorable, they wanted to back out even now.

“You bastards…!”

Just before Grand Madame Ouyang's eyes narrowed as she noticed this, and a loud shout was about to erupt from her mouth.

“T-Look at that…?!”

A commotion broke out on the rooftop of the pavilion, where her warriors were standing guard.

“Grand Madame…! The east! It is the east!”

At that urgent voice coming from the rooftop, one of the underworld bosses hurriedly ran and flung open the eastern window.

“……!”

Including Grand Madame Ouyang.

Everyone in the room could see.

On the other side of the main road.

Against the backdrop of the rising sun in the east.

The sight of a fully armed army of warriors marching forward.

The characters embroidered on the colorful war flags they held were clearly revealed, catching the light of the rising sun.

Leaning his head out the window as if about to fall, the underworld boss read it in a trembling voice.

“…Luoyang Sword Family, War Department.”

His trembling gaze turned toward the next flag.

“Sword Peak Mountain Splitter…!”

Sword Peak Mountain Splitter Yeom Gwak-chu.

What did it mean that Elder Yeom, the chief warrior of the Luoyang Sword Family and a member of the War Department, had personally stepped forward leading the troops?

“…It is over.”

Someone's muttered words scattered in vain in the dawn wind.