Black and White Martial Emperor

“What?”

Je Gal Munho’s expression turned grave.

“Explain everything in detail.”

The three-knot disciple of the Beggars’ Union whom Ga Deoksang had personally sent reported everything in full: the current situation of the Righteous Justice Corps, the state of affairs in Guangdong, and even the fact that one of Putuo Hermitage’s branches had approached them.

“Putuo... One of Putuo’s branches went to Supreme Commander Yeon...”

He had already received a report that the representative and successor of Lotus Gate, one of Putuo Hermitage’s three branches, had headed toward Ink Dragon Manor in Hunan.

He had informed Venerable Gonggong first, but given the nature of the matter, they had yet to disclose it at the council meeting. They intended to do so soon, but with the current situation so chaotic, they had been waiting for the right moment.

Naturally, that moment would come after they received a reply to the letter Venerable Gonggong had sent to Putuo Hermitage.

But another branch went to Supreme Commander Yeon?

Je Gal Munho repeatedly tapped his index finger against the table.

Why?

Yeon Hojeong, Commander of the Righteous Justice Corps and overall commander of the Martial Alliance’s Combined Field Force, possessed considerable fame.

Considering his age, it was no small feat to have achieved such renown while still so young. Some even believed the Martial Alliance had promoted a young master too aggressively and inflated his reputation beyond what he deserved.

That was, of course, a misunderstanding.

Considering Yeon Hojeong’s actual abilities, the reputation of the Green Mountain Tiger Commander throughout the Central Plains was, if anything, severely understated.

Either way, Yeon Hojeong stood foremost among the younger generation in fame.

But...

They can’t have gone there to ask something of Supreme Commander Yeon personally. If anything, they may have intended to use him as a route to make a request of the main Alliance.

No matter how impressive Yeon Hojeong’s reputation was, he was still a younger-generation master.

In other words, his personal reputation could not surpass that of an organization like the Martial Alliance. That much was only natural. Even a master of the Supreme Heavens, as an individual, could not eclipse the reputation of an entire organization.

Yet the representative and successor of another Putuo branch, Thousand-Eyes Gate, had gone to Yeon Hojeong?

There are two possibilities. Either they intended to win Supreme Commander Yeon over, or...

Someone in the middle was manipulating events.

There was no end to the possibilities if he started listing them. Taken to an extreme, he could even imagine that Yeon Hojeong and Putuo Hermitage had secretly shared some connection for years without the Martial Alliance’s knowledge.

Naturally, Je Gal Munho discarded such absurd ideas.

Even apart from his trust in Yeon Hojeong, Yeon was simply too intelligent to do something so foolish.

Putuo Hermitage has three branches. Lotus Gate went to Ink Dragon Manor, and Thousand-Eyes Gate went to Supreme Commander Yeon. Then what about the last one?

Je Gal Munho’s gaze deepened.

They had far too little information.

Putuo was a Buddhist martial sect, and although they had received reports that internal conflict there had been continuing, they had never investigated deeply.

That was only natural.

Putuo Hermitage did not belong to any broader Buddhist institution or martial alliance. It had committed no obvious atrocity that anyone could condemn, either. Launching an independent investigation into its internal affairs would have crossed a line.

Whatever the case, the conflict inside Putuo must be much larger than we thought. Even before Supreme Commander Yeon became involved, the fact that the representative of one branch visited Ink Dragon Manor in itself...

After considering the matter from several angles, Je Gal Munho finally nodded.

“Understood. You’ve done well.”

“Thank you. And this...”

The Beggars’ Union disciple drew a small letter from inside his clothes.

Despite his ragged attire, the letter itself was spotless.

Je Gal Munho’s eyes gleamed.

“The Successor instructed me to deliver this as well after giving you his report.”

“I see.”

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

“Thank you.”

Once the Beggars’ Union disciple departed, Je Gal Munho immediately opened the letter.

His eyes flashed.

...Therefore, both Supreme Commander Yeon and I suspect that Ink Dragon Manor has actively interfered in this affair. We possess no definitive physical evidence, but considering that a letter came directly from the Manor Lord of Ink Dragon Manor, the circumstantial evidence makes it nearly certain.

However, given Putuo Hermitage’s unique nature and the lack of any clearly established causal link between Putuo and Ink Dragon Manor, an aggressive investigation could expose us to political pressure. If you organize the matter and issue the order, the Beggars’ Union will investigate through an independent operation.

So something really was going on.

Je Gal Munho’s mind began racing once again.

Putuo Hermitage... Putuo’s symbol is the Sword Empress. With the Manor Lord of Ink Dragon Manor’s martial prowess, even the Sword Empress under heaven would hardly frighten him. As organizations, there is no comparison at all. If the Manor Lord truly did incite Putuo’s internal conflict, then his reason must be...

Suddenly, Je Gal Munho let out a quiet exclamation.

“Of course. For the Ink Dragon Manor as it stands now, the existence of the Sword Empress would hardly be welcome.”

For Putuo’s final candidate to ascend to the position of Sword Empress, martial prowess alone was insufficient. She also had to prove herself in matters of good and evil.

That was why, in every generation, Sword Empress candidates ventured into the Central Plains. Without revealing their identities, they accumulated good deeds, punished evil, and then returned to Putuo Hermitage.

Of course, very few people knew this.

The same was true even among the Martial Alliance’s highest-ranking figures.

A female swordswoman who had deliberately concealed her identity would spend anywhere from several months to several years wandering the world and carrying out chivalrous deeds under a resolve to punish evil.

Since any candidate would already have reached a highly complete level as a martial artist, concealing herself would not have been particularly difficult.

Je Gal Munho himself would never have known if Venerable Gonggong had not told him.

Ink Dragon Manor is a newly formed alliance. Yangcheon’s presence is overwhelming, but as an organization, it will still have difficulty maintaining a stable foundation. That is something only time can establish.

People often made the mistake of thinking that sufficient military and financial power made it easy to establish an organization.

And technically, it did.

The problem was keeping it alive.

Whether an organization blazed brightly for a single generation and vanished, or endured for centuries, depended on its authority, character, and purpose.

What reputation had it built over the years?

How much power did it possess, and toward what ends did it use that power?

Time mattered, but so did fortune and opportunity. Public sentiment mattered as well, as did relations with other sects and factions.

In that respect, Ink Dragon Manor had yet to show the world very much.

Put simply, it still carried the full weight of the negative image people associated with the Dark Path.

So what would happen if a Sword Empress candidate emerged into the world claiming she intended to punish evil?

She would inevitably challenge them. To prove both her strength and her convictions, the Sword Empress candidate could hardly ignore Ink Dragon Manor, an alliance of the Dark Path. Regardless of who won or lost, simply being challenged would undermine Yangcheon’s authority.

Yangcheon was an undefeated fighter who had spent his life clashing with the world.

No matter how formidable a Sword Empress candidate might be, surpassing Yangcheon would not be easy.

Naturally, Yangcheon could not have pushed Putuo Hermitage into such chaos because he feared the Sword Empress herself.

What he feared was not defeat.

It was damage to Ink Dragon Manor’s influence and presence.

Yangcheon, indeed. If he is already looking that far ahead, he truly is no ordinary man.

There was still no definitive physical evidence.

Even so, Je Gal Munho was already convinced that Yangcheon stood behind Putuo Hermitage’s internal conflict.

For a strategist, certainty without evidence was an extremely dangerous thing.

Yet Je Gal Munho trusted his conclusion this time because he trusted the abilities of Yeon Hojeong and Ga Deoksang.

For now, let’s proceed on that assumption. Which leaves one question.

Yangcheon could throw his support behind one of Putuo’s three branches.

Doing so would increase the chances {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} of that branch producing the next Sword Empress, and in time, Ink Dragon Manor and Putuo Hermitage might even become allies.

In other words, Putuo’s internal strife should have been something Yangcheon wanted hidden from everyone.

Yet Yangcheon had personally written to Yeon Hojeong and told him to receive one of Putuo’s branches properly.

Why?

Taking control of Putuo Hermitage isn’t his objective.

Nor was his objective to destroy Putuo completely.

If Yangcheon had wanted Putuo erased, he could simply have invaded it himself and taken the heads of everyone involved.

He possessed that much power.

Then what?

He intends to use Putuo Hermitage to accomplish something else.

A strategist had to be able to look one move ahead even when nothing could be known with certainty, reading the circumstances, the character and position of the people involved, and the broader flow of the times.

In that respect, unlike Yeon Hojeong, who often predicted the next move through experience and instinct, Je Gal Munho was a strategist in the truest sense.

He quickly began writing a letter.

This is not the time to move rashly, Manor Lord Yang.

Deung Cheongyo’s bombshell revelation had turned the atmosphere among the Martial Alliance leadership as cold and brittle as thin ice.

The existence of all Three Creeds had already been exposed.

If there was even the slightest possibility that Yangcheon intended to use Putuo Hermitage to do something about the Three Creeds, then regardless of the divide between the orthodox and Dark Paths, he had to be stopped.

“Is anyone outside?”

“Yes, Strategist.”

The door opened and a warrior from the strategist’s office entered.

Je Gal Munho handed him two letters.

“Deliver this one to the Successor. Leak the other into Ink Dragon Manor’s intelligence network in Hunan.”

“...Pardon?”

“There’s no time! Go!”

“Ah, yes!”

The warrior took the letters and hurried from the room.

Je Gal Munho rose as well.

Events were unfolding at a surprisingly urgent pace.

This was no time to sit comfortably in his office and review routine work.

After straightening his formal attire, Je Gal Munho left the office.

His destination was Mo Yonggun’s quarters.

*****

Hwaun, overwhelmed by Beomo’s shout and the aftereffects of his Buddhist qi art, had shed bloody tears before finally losing consciousness.

Three days passed, and she still did not wake.

Her body had suffered no strain such as internal injury. The problem was that Beomo’s Great Power of Prajna had shaken the Buddhist qi art she had cultivated and swept away the confusion lodged in her middle dantian.

The middle dantian, disturbed by an external force, sent the impact surging into the upper dantian and shocked her mind and soul.

She would not be waking anytime soon.

“Still, seeing it again, that really is remarkable.”

Beomo, who had been drinking tea, blinked at Yeon Hojeong’s words.

“What is?”

“For someone that powerful to remain unconscious for three straight days. Your Lion’s Roar must have been quite something.”

Beomo gave a bitter smile.

“The Great Power of Prajna is one of Buddhism’s supreme divine arts. Anyone who has cultivated demon-subduing Buddhist qi cannot help but become vulnerable before the power of Prajna.”

“Oh?”

“However, that method worked only because she herself already knew very clearly that she had done wrong. Had she felt not even a trace of guilt, even the power of Prajna would have been useless.”

The Lion’s Roar was not merely a martial art.

It was the sound of enlightenment, a single shout that shook the afflictions within the heart.

Naturally, for it to produce its true effect, both the practitioner’s Inner Qi and enlightenment had to be extraordinary.

“Either way, once she wakes, do you think she’ll be somewhat different from before?”

“That, too, is impossible to know. If enlightenment could be granted with a single shout, who in this world would not be enlightened? Such a thing would be impossible for anyone but the Buddha.”

“Fair enough.”

“All I did was show her that the road she was walking was the wrong one and put a crack in her afflictions. What happens from here depends entirely upon her.”

Yeon Hojeong smiled.

“You truly sound like a proper monk now.”

Beomo smiled awkwardly.

“I have shown Supreme Commander Yeon far too many embarrassing sides of myself.”

“I liked them. Made you seem human.”

“Ha ha ha.”

The two were still conversing peacefully when—

“Supreme Commander Yeon!”

Ga Deoksang’s voice carried from far beyond the window.

“What is it?”

“A message came from the Strategist! But...”

“Hmm?”

By the time Ga Deoksang reached the window, his face was filled with concern.

“The existence of the Three Creeds has been revealed at the council meeting.”

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes turned cold.