The Introverted Heavenly Demon - Chapter 99

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Introverted Heavenly Demon Episode 099
Black Path
“Your name?”
“I am Peng, sir. Or rather, young master.”
“Tell me—how did you come to be imprisoned here?”
“Ah, young master, lord. Please, I beg your forgiveness just this once.”
The man called Peng clearly had no grasp of where he was being held.
Nor did he understand who these dignified figures standing before him were.
“We are not government officials, so spare your excuses. We merely wish to ask you several questions.”
“Yes, yes. Ask whatever you wish.”
I studied the man’s haggard appearance and his garments—so begrimed with filth and tattered beyond recognition that it was impossible to tell whether they were clothes or rags.
“You claim to be a member of the Pal Cheon Am Bang, a faction of the Black Path?”
“Ah… that is… one could say so.”
“Speak clearly. Do not equivocate.”
“Yes, yes. I belong to the Sea Sand Gang, and since the Sea Sand Gang is one of eight factions comprising the Pal Cheon Am Bang, I am indeed a member. However…”
“However?”
“About ten days ago, my direct superior in the Sea Sand Gang suddenly vanished, and my work dried up. So whether I still truly belong to the Sea Sand Gang is somewhat unclear. No one assigns me tasks anymore.”
“I see.”
“Could you not forgive me just once? My family starves while I have no means to earn. The rice stores were depleted, so I gathered what I could. I truly did not know I was moving military provisions.”
What caught my attention in his words was the name Sea Sand Gang.
Sea Sand—the sand of the sea—was another term for salt.
In this world, salt trade was strictly forbidden except for Official Salt, which only government offices or merchants licensed by the government could sell.
The Sea Sand Gang was an organization of those who smuggled salt from its sources and engaged in illegal trafficking.
Though classified as Black Path due to the criminal nature of their work, most of its members, like Peng, conducted it as a livelihood, making it difficult to clearly distinguish from legitimate merchant guilds.
That man held at the Cheong Yun Merchant Group—the one the Ho Rim Pyo Lord had tried to smuggle out—Seo Pil, was also a member of the Sea Sand Gang.
I regarded him intently and posed another question.
“You said you were a disciple of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect?”
“Ah…”
Hye Woon believed the Sea Sand Gang was impersonating the Sun and Moon Divine Sect, orchestrating a conspiracy to make it appear as though the Divine Sect controlled the Black Path factions from behind the scenes.
So perhaps—no, certainly—this was the most crucial question.
His answer would determine how I must proceed from this moment forward.
The man surnamed Peng answered with surprising lack of hesitation.
“Yes. I am a disciple of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect.”
Peng seemed to expect another question to follow immediately.
Yet when everyone gathered in the narrow warehouse fell silent, he turned the tables and posed a question of his own.
“Young master, how much do you know of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect?”
“…I know what there is to know.”
“What I mean to ask is… do you regard the Sun and Moon Divine Sect as the Demonic Cult?”
As Peng spoke the name Sun and Moon Divine Sect, his eyes shone with a light incomparable to when he had first entered.
“That is what the common people say of it.”
“No.”
What gleamed in his eyes bore the name of passion.
“Those who know nothing of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect call us a Demonic Cult. They call us disciples of demons. Yet they understand nothing at all….”
“If not a Demonic Cult, then what?”
“Before the Sun and Moon Divine Sect was called the Myeong Cult, it merged with a religion that came from the west and was known by the name of the Demonic Cult, which worships Ma Joon. That is why outsiders still mistakenly believe our Divine Sect venerates demons.”
What Peng was saying now was the very doctrine that Sun and Moon Divine Sect disciples taught to those first studying our teachings.
“Moreover, the Righteous Martial Arts Society and the Government Office, which seek to check the expansion of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect, deliberately use the derogatory term ‘Demonic Cult’ instead of our official name. And I have heard that the current Sect Leader of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect deliberately calls himself the Heavenly Demon in defiance of this Righteous Martial Arts Society.”
“What others call us matters little. So tell me—what do you believe the Sun and Moon Divine Sect to be?”
Peng answered without hesitation, as if he had been waiting for precisely this question.
“The Sun and Moon Divine Sect teaches that all humans are equal, and that those with strength must aid and uplift those without it. We teach that when the weak gather their power and elevate themselves, the world becomes prosperous and all people can live in happiness.”
“Is that truly so?”
“It is, sir.”
Everyone listened in silence to our exchange.
I posed another question to Peng.
“If your religion is so righteous, why do its disciples hide their identities and live in concealment?”
“It is the policy of the Sect Headquarters.”
“The Sect Headquarters? I have heard that its Sect Leader and leadership deem the Righteous Martial Arts Society hypocrites and plot rebellion.”
“That is correct. We ordinary disciples now await the day when our Sect Leader will raise us up to face the true evil of this world. Many disciples throughout Kangho conceal their identities to gather strength until that day comes.”
“Yet why do you boldly reveal your identity here?”
“It is our policy not to reveal ourselves before others, but we do not deny our discipleship before government officials or members of the Righteous Martial Arts Society.”
“Even if this brings you great suffering?”
“I would rather die than betray my fellow disciples and the grace of our Sect Leader.”
As Peng spoke with his spine straight and his gaze unwavering, I sensed a certain force emanating from him.
“I see. Is there more you wish to say?”
“I believe I have said all that I came to say.”
Having finished, Peng blinked as if something had suddenly occurred to him, and he asked me a question.
“But… who are you, sir?”
It was a question asked far too late, yet also perfectly timed.
Rather than answer, I turned my gaze toward Hye Woon.
Hye Woon had been lost in thought, saying nothing all this while.
“Monk.”
“Yes, Minor Sect Leader.”
The moment the words “Minor Sect Leader” left Hye Woon’s lips, Peng’s eyes widened like lanterns, and his shoulders trembled violently.
“This man is not impersonating a disciple of the Main Sect.”
“…It would seem I have gravely misunderstood something.”
Peng barely managed to steady himself, his body nearly toppling backward.
“Yes, Monk. This man is indeed a disciple of the Sun and Moon Divine Sect.”
Young Ho Bin stepped forward and caught him before he could fall.
I spoke to Hye Woon.
“Our disciple has committed a transgression. Yet it appears he harbors remorse. Might you release him?”
“Of course, I shall do so.”
By that point, Peng Ga was on his knees, prostrate before me with his forehead pressed to the ground.
I approached Peng Ga and helped him to his feet.
“You’re… you’re the Minor Sect Leader?”
“It is my first time meeting a Disciple in Kangho in this manner. I am Minor Sect Leader Baek Yeon.”
“Heh, heh, heh….”
Peng Ga laughed like a man possessed, then soon pressed his head to the ground and began to weep.

* * *
After sending Peng Ga home, I returned immediately to the Cheong Yun Merchant Group’s headquarters with my companions.
“Brother, you’ve returned?”
Baek Hyeon, standing in the garden, recognized me and greeted me warmly.
Beside Hyeon Yi were Gong Moon Tak, the Three Commanders of the Cheong Yun Merchant Group, as well as Hwang Yang, the acting commander, and Poong Cheong Jin, the escort captain.
From the atmosphere, it seemed they had been discussing something regarding the treatment of the Black Sword Members detained at the manor.
“Perfect, everyone is gathered. This works well.”
“Brother, do you have something to tell us?”
Instead of answering Hyeon Yi, I walked toward the tent where the Black Sword Members were bound in chains.
“You have all endured much hardship.”
And I spoke to them in a loud voice.
“I shall have your chains removed. Go straight home. From now on, I hope you will live righteously.”
Baek Hyeon, startled, opened his eyes wide and asked.
“Brother? What do you mean by that?”
The Three Commanders and acting commander of the Cheong Yun Merchant Group were equally astonished by my sudden declaration.
These were the Black Sword Bandits they had painstakingly captured to elevate the Cheong Yun Merchant Group’s reputation and establish moral legitimacy.
Yet I, an outsider strictly speaking, had just declared I would release them all in one fell swoop—naturally, everyone was taken aback.
But it seemed the Black Sword Bandits themselves were even more shocked than the leadership of the Cheong Yun Merchant Group.
“Release us?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Who is this little one?”
Many of these men, like the man Peng Ga, had likely committed crimes out of necessity to survive.
But not all of them were the same.
There would surely be many vicious criminals who had victimized the innocent to satisfy their greed.
I too had not been without hesitation in making the decision to release them all back into society.
“Brother?”
“Hyun Ah. I will explain later. For now, do as I say.”
“….”
I left the bewildered Hyeon Yi and issued an order to Poong Cheong Jin.
“Captain Poong.”
“Yes, sir!”
“What are you waiting for? You heard my words.”
“Zun Ming!”
Indeed, Poong Cheong Jin proved far more decisive than the bewildered executives of the merchant guild.
Through both learned instinct and natural acumen, Poong Cheong Jin understood precisely whose orders demanded obedience. It took little time for him to command his subordinates to unfasten every iron chain binding the Black Sword Members.
Even as this unfolded, Gong Moon Tak, the Three Commanders of the Cheong Yun Merchant Group, and Hwang Yang, the acting commander, shifted anxiously on their feet, attempting to dissuade me.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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