The World’s Greatest is Dead - Chapter 320

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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 Heavenly Supreme Has Died – Episode 320
“You’ve arrived?”
“Forgive the intrusion.”
I was guided to find Maehua Daeju. He greeted me with an expression that seemed weary from exhaustion.
“You appear quite troubled.”
“…Heh. There’s no way around it, is there?”
Hwasan’s sect leader had collapsed. That was surely why he wore such an expression.
‘Tsk.’
Knowing his true nature and desires as I did, his words would never convince me.
“I apologize for summoning you in such circumstances. The situation has been rather unclear.”
“Of course I understand. It’s unavoidable. Ah, the sect leader is unharmed, I presume?”
“…That is….”
Maehua Daeju trailed off. After a brief silence passed, he spoke to me again.
“It appears those from Patcheon Gung have been scheming…. He was poisoned, or so I’m told.”
“…Poisoned….”
I touched my chin with my hand, feigning contemplation.
“…You mean to say it was the work of traitors within?”
“Indeed.”
Crack.
He gripped the letter on his desk tightly.
“…Those vile wretches…. They’ve surely poisoned the sect leader.”
“….”
Screech.
A sound echoed. My eyes turned downward. I could see the furniture, including the desk, trembling wildly.
Maehua Daeju was scattering his presence throughout the room in all directions.
The intention was.
‘To demonstrate that his emotions were running high.’
To prove to me that his feelings were raging violently.
‘Hmm.’
My gaze left him and turned upward to Seongheon, who had become a Saengryeong with a melancholic expression.
‘Even so.’
Is this the atonement you speak of?
I could only find it incomprehensible.
Then.
“Hani….”
Maehua Daeju forcibly suppressed his seething voice and spoke to me.
“I beg you to help with this matter….”
“…Help, you say? Am I not already assisting?”
“This is insufficient. With the sect leader having met with misfortune, we must uproot those wretches before further calamity strikes.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“If Wol-hyeop shares our intentions, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share the information you possess with us as well.”
“….”
I narrowed my eyes. Information sharing—surely they didn’t mean.
“Are you asking me to reveal information about the double agent?”
They were asking me to share details about the one who provided me with information.
“…The situation is dire. There is no time for further hesitation.”
“Even so, that is a difficult matter for me to address.”
“Why not? Do you perhaps suspect that I too am a traitor?”
“How could I dare such a thing? If that were the case, I would not be standing before you now, Daeju.”
“Then why—”
“It is for his safety. I must ensure this is firmly established before I can move forward.”
“…Even at this moment when such grave matters unfold at Hwasan?”
Ha.
I swallowed my laughter internally. Was he about to become emotional?
With such turmoil erupting at Hwasan, he was asking why I wouldn’t speak?
“Yes. No matter how grave the situation at Hwasan becomes, what must be done must be done.”
Truthfully, whatever befalls Hwasan is not my concern. I was not one of their people, after all.
“I cannot reveal information about the agent. I apologize.”
How could I reveal details about an agent that doesn’t even exist?
‘There’s nothing to reveal in the first place.’
Should I claim I used a ghost? That was absurd.
“….”
Maehua Daeju’s gaze sharpened. At first glance, it seemed like he was glaring at me. Or perhaps it wasn’t just at first glance—perhaps he truly was?
“…I understand.”
Glaring would accomplish nothing. Maehua Daeju finally nodded his head.
“Let us set aside the matter of the agent…. Now, let us move to the main topic.”
The main topic. I leaned in to listen.
There was a reason he had summoned me.
“You said you had something to discuss regarding a matter.”
“Indeed.”
“What matter is it?”
“Do you remember the one who ambushed Wol-hyeop?”
“Ah. Yes. I remember.”
That swordmaster. The figure who once bore the aura of Patcheon Gung but whose presence had since vanished.
“I obtained information from him.”
“…What?”
I narrowed my eyes. Information from him?
‘From that man?’
The one whose Patcheon Gung aura had disappeared and who had expressed his grievances.
Knowing that an interrogation was underway, I had been planning to meet with him once this matter concluded.
“You received information from him?”
He received information from that man?
“Indeed.”
“What sort of information, if I may ask?”
“Information regarding another stronghold where members of Patcheon Gung gather.”
“….”
Upon hearing those words, my fingertips grew slightly numb.
‘…Information about a stronghold?’
That man spoke of information regarding a stronghold? How?
‘He claimed he knew nothing of such things. A stronghold?’
I couldn’t make sense of it.
‘Of course….’
There was justification. Since he had ambushed me, that official called Mugwanju could indeed be a spy for Patcheon Gung.
‘…But this.’
Something felt off. The image of him vehemently denying involvement and the atmosphere surrounding him flickered before my eyes.
An eerie feeling crept over me, so I questioned Maehua Daeju.
“…Maehua Daeju.”
“What troubles you?”
“That man. After he revealed the information, what became of him?”
A chill ran through me as I asked. Then.
“…That is….”
Maehua Daeju spoke to me with a sorrowful expression.
“Like the others, I was told that the moment he disclosed the information, he fell to death.”
“….”
“Truly wretched villains, are they not?”
Tap. Tap.
I gently drummed my fingers against my thigh.
‘Dead?’
The innkeeper had died. He had revealed the information and perished as a result, or so I was told.
‘…Really?’
Just as it happened at the inn, could it have happened to him as well?
‘His energy had vanished.’
Not only had the aura of Patcheon Gung faded, but what I sensed from him was something entirely different.
Desperation. A genuine sense of injustice that he was not involved.
Yet he was dead?
‘…I’m not so sure….’
A bad feeling settled over me. This was.
‘It doesn’t seem like suicide.’
It was not suicide. Nor was it death from a restraining seal. This was.
‘He was murdered.’
I suspected the person being interrogated had been killed. The culprit was naturally the man standing before me.
‘The reason.’
It must be related to the information just revealed.
“….”
My insides hardened coldly.
A confession? That couldn’t be.
“…So you’re saying that by disclosing information about the base, you’ve discovered its location?”
I spoke while suppressing the tangled, uncomfortable feeling within me.
Upon hearing this, Maehua Daeju nodded.
“Indeed. They say it’s a forest to the north, not in the prefecture. It appears they’ve established a camp there and are plotting something.”
“…A forest to the north….”
“Therefore, I thought this investigation should head to the northern forest…. If the intelligence division has separate information, I will respect it.”
“….”
Maehua Daeju’s cunning tongue brushed past my ear. Respect? It wasn’t even amusing.
‘Now is the time.’
I understood his intention. Or rather, it was more accurate to say I only now truly realized what I had known since arriving.
‘The moment he intends to eliminate me is now.’
Maehua Daeju’s target was me. Now that Seongheon had fallen, I was the next obstacle. It seemed he intended to remove me entirely.
Fine. I had expected this anyway, knowing that old man would eventually make his move. This was within my calculations.
One thing.
“Daeju, I have one question.”
“What is it?”
“Wasn’t there a child who came with the martial official who took his own life?”
“Yes. A pitiful child.”
“…What became of that child?”
“What became of them?”
Maehua Daeju looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“The father has passed away, so I was curious about the child’s whereabouts.”
“…Aha ha.”
Maehua Daeju laughed upon hearing my words.
“Wol-hyeop, you live up to your reputation as a wanderer. To think you’d even concern yourself with the child of one who sought to harm you.”
“The child bears no guilt.”
All children were like that.
“Don’t worry about the child. Though the father’s sins run deep, Hwasan does not abandon such children. Depending on circumstances, I’m even considering taking them as a disciple.”
“…The child of a criminal, you say.”
“The child bears no guilt.”
The Daeju spoke with a smile, and I nodded expressionlessly in response.
“I see.”
After uttering those words, I continued, looking toward Maehua Daeju.
“Understood. Regarding the investigation of the northern base. When should we depart?”
“We will conduct an investigation tonight.”
“…I will remember. Until then.”
I turned away. There was no need for further lengthy conversation.
Before questioning his methods and intentions, there was something I needed to see first.

* * *
Upon leaving Maehua Daeju’s quarters, I headed toward the interrogation chamber.
Though it was called an interrogation chamber, it appeared they had simply converted a training room for this purpose.
“Please, come in.”
A disciple who had been standing guard guided me inside. Since I had been granted full authority, entering such places was convenient enough.
Creak. I opened the door and stepped within.
The interior revealed nothing particularly noteworthy. Even calling it an interrogation chamber, there was only a single table—nothing more.
Observing this, I questioned the disciple.
“What became of the corpse?”
“The corpse, sir?”
His expression suggested bewilderment at the question, yet he answered without hesitation.
“We have preserved and stored it for now. Should no further issues arise… we intend to maintain it as best we can and deliver it to the bereaved family.”
“…I see.”
“Yes. Is there anything else you wish to verify?”
“I don’t see anything particular, but I’ll examine things a bit longer before I leave.”
“Ah, understood. Then.”
The disciple bowed and departed. After sending him off, I examined the interrogation chamber alone.
Well, alone save for Sochul Daeju, who remained at my side.
“What is it you wish to observe?”
“Just looking around a bit.”
With an expressionless face, I surveyed the surroundings. The interrogation chamber bore no traces of anything.
Yes.
‘There is nothing here.’
The very absence of anything was what struck me as strange.
It was immaculately clean, as though someone had deliberately tidied it away.
Sochul Daeju’s eyes held a peculiar light, questioning why I had come to such a place at all.
Yet unlike him, who could see nothing,
I could perceive something with crystalline clarity.
[…How sorrowfully it weeps.]
Yoo Cheon-gil observed something and clicked his tongue in disapproval.
Seongheon was no different. His expression darkened as he stared at one particular spot.
And.
I too was gazing at that place.
-Kugh, kugh…. Huuuuu.
In the corner, a translucent human form sat hunched, weeping.
—Why… Why is Hwasan…?
The man who had ambushed me crouched there, tears of blood streaming down his face.
—I… I truly did nothing… Why…?
A soul brimming with resentment, on the verge of becoming a demon.
Watching him, I became certain.
‘…It seems.’
My suspicion was correct.
Maehua Daeju.
‘Has crossed the line.’
The moment the thought crossed my mind, the trembling within me instantly stilled into absolute silence.
In that emptiness, that profound quiet.
‘I must kill him.’
Killing intent bloomed.
“…!”
So vivid it startled even myself.

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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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