“That makes no sense. Depart from the Alliance, you say?”

Mo Yonggun’s brow furrowed.

“We haven’t even picked the warriors who will make up the Field Force yet. How can they be departing the Alliance? Surely you don’t mean to send the Field Force commander out alone?”

“No.”

“And then?”

Je Gal Munho spoke calmly.

“Commander Yeon Hojeong has already selected all of his martial personnel.”

“...?!”

“Their numbers are small, but given how deep the commander’s mastery of strategy is, and how formidable his own martial arts, I judged it best to send him into the rivers and lakes as soon as possible. Of course, this was also at the commander’s own request.”

At that moment, Namgung In spoke.

“Even so, this is excessive handling.”

“Excessive handling?”

“An Independent Field Force, one of only two stand-alone units in the Alliance of the Martial World, has been founded. However free a unit it may be, sending them out without even holding a commander’s investiture or a formation ceremony is clearly a mistake.”

He spoke in a calm voice, but the content carried a rebuke.

Je Gal Munho smiled.

“Lord Namgung, do you take this Alliance to be a military ministry?”

“It may not be a military ministry, but there is such a thing as proper procedure. If they have already departed, they must be called back, and if they have not yet left, they must be held here until formal authorization is given.”

“I understand what you are saying, but such things are no more than empty ceremony.”

Namgung In’s eyes twitched slightly.

“Empty ceremony?”

“Commander Yeon asked to depart the Alliance even a day earlier to weaken the momentum of the dark-path forces that are rampaging across the land and to stabilize the lives of the common people. Surely you are not saying, Lord Namgung, that ritual propriety is more important to you than the rise of the dark path?”

Namgung In’s gaze turned cold.

It was a far more aggressive response than he’d expected. The tone was polished, but the content was clearly meant to attack.

So this is how you want to play it.

Mo Yonggun opened his mouth.

“What Military Advisor Je Gal means is...”

“Please correct yourself. I am the Alliance’s military advisor.”

In an instant, the mood inside the Hall of the Martial Sage froze over.

“Furthermore, everyone present here is a leading figure of the age, bearing the White Path on their shoulders. In private, it might be different, but in an official setting like this, I must ask you to be mindful of titles.”

Mo Yonggun’s lips curved faintly.

“My apologies. I am not yet used to your official post, so this man made a mistake.”

“I understand.”

“Let me say it again. There is a flaw in Military Advisor Je Gal’s argument.”

“I shall listen with all due respect.”

“Rumors of the founding of the Alliance of the Martial World are spreading like wildfire. But just because such rumors spread does not mean the dark path will suddenly rise without preparation. Is it not possible that you are simply overreacting, Military Advisor?”

“Is that so?”

“It is. Furthermore, even if dark-path forces were springing up like bamboo shoots after rain as we speak, it would still be difficult to identify each and every place they appear. To claim that Commander Yeon’s single unit will suppress the dark path across the land is sheer nonsense.”

A smile played at the corners of Je Gal Munho’s lips.

In that moment, Mo Yonggun felt a jolt of alarm.

So he was waiting for that line to come out.

Je Gal Munho raised his voice toward the entrance of the hall.

“Deputy Ga Deoksang, please enter the main hall.”

RUMBLE.

The doors opened and Ga Deoksang walked in. In his hands he held a large sheet of paper, rolled up.

“Deputy Ga Deoksang of the Beggars’ Union pays his respects to the Grand Public Officers of the Alliance.”

Je Gal Munho spoke.

“Will you give us the map?”

“Here it is.”

A detailed full map of the Central Plains was spread out over the massive table.

All over the map, names of dark-path sects and groups were written in red.

Amazingly, there were over a hundred of them. From famous dark-path sects to small-scale factions, the notations were painstakingly precise.

“As the Grand Public Officers are well aware, the world is vast. The red marks indicate only those places whose scale is great, or whose presence is a fatal threat to public safety, or those sects with a high likelihood of growing large in the future.”

“Hehh.”

“Even taking only the bare minimum, this is what we get. If we tried to grasp everything, the number would be beyond counting. However...”

Je Gal Munho glanced at Ga Deoksang.

Ga Deoksang smiled as he picked up the words.

“If the Field Force were to circle the Central Plains and annihilate every location marked here, the dark-path martial world would enter the worst dark age in its history.”

From the very beginning, the dark path was something that could not be uprooted.

In a certain sense, they were far more deeply woven into the lives of common folk than the White Path ever was.

The man whose martial arts fame shook the world was of the dark path, the gigolo who served as the pillar of a pleasure house was of the dark path, and the men who lent money at usurious rates to suck the lifeblood out of commoners were also of the dark path.

Such vicious people were lumped together under the name “dark path,” so unless every last person under heaven died, the dark path [N O V E L I G H T] could never be wiped out.

That left only one way to crush the dark path.

You targeted dark-path sects of great renown and famous experts and smashed them mercilessly. If they raised their heads again, you went and smashed them again, and if they hid, you dragged them out and annihilated them.

“All the Grand Public Officers gathered here are titans of the martial world whose experience in the rivers and lakes is second to none. You cannot be unaware that purging the dark-path forces shown on this map is no easy task.”

Of course it would not be easy.

This was a matter that required strategy even before martial prowess, and before strategy, it required the unity of the unit.

Mo Yonggun spoke.

“I have wanted to ask this for some time now: where did you even recruit the martial artists who belong to Yeon Hojeong’s Field Force?”

At that, several of the Sect Leaders from the Nine Sects started clearing their throats in succession.

Mo Yonggun’s eyes widened.

“Don’t tell me you drew them from the Nine Sects.”

The Sect Leader of Azure Castle Sect, Wind-Fixated Master, opened his mouth.

“I do not know about other sects, but in Azure Castle’s case, we left it up to the disciples themselves.”

“Left it up to them? What do you mean by that?”

“They are precious disciples of the main sect. But right now, they are wandering, lost. For such disciples, a journey through the rivers and lakes as part of an Independent Field Force may serve as a different kind of stimulus.”

“Hehh.”

Mo Yonggun looked around.

“Do the other Sect Leaders share a similar reason?”

No one spoke.

There wasn’t anything in particular to say, and if they did say something, it felt like the conversation would simply drag on.

Wind-Fixated Master spoke again.

“However, I understand the number to be extremely small.”

Je Gal Munho nodded.

“That is correct. There are not even fifty.”

Mo Yonggun frowned.

“They may number less than fifty, but each one of them is a young expert who has been passed down a sect’s signature arts from the Nine Sects. At the same time, they are people who have never once moved as a single unit. To take such people into the rivers and lakes without proper training is absurd.”

Je Gal Munho tilted his head.

“That is not something I can let pass so easily.”

“What was that?”

“Was it not you, Grand Public Officer Mo Yong, who first proposed forming the Independent Field Forces and argued that the Field Force commanders should be given full power over the life and death of their subordinates?”

“...!!”

“How they train and how they operate the unit is entirely up to the Field Force commander. That is precisely why the weight of responsibility that the commander must bear is so great. Is that not so?”

Mo Yonggun’s eyes sank deep.

I took that one head-on.

He had never imagined Yeon Hojeong would depart the Alliance this quickly.

He had been waiting for the two Independent Field Forces to hold their founding ceremonies in front of everyone.

Naturally, compared to the Field Force that Mo Yong-woo would lead, the one under Yeon Hojeong would look shabby to the point of being laughable. And that, in turn, would have a major impact on the morale of the units.

I’d meant to bury him from the very start and send him off under that weight, but he just left first? Hah!

Truly, the boy’s ability to turn his mind was enough to inspire admiration. While Mo Yonggun waited for the gamble, Yeon Hojeong had flipped the table over and walked off to a different gambling hall altogether.

Je Gal Munho continued.

“Furthermore, let me state this as well. Even if there are disciples of old sects within the Field Force who did not receive their elders’ permission from the main sect before joining, taking them back is impossible without the commander’s consent.”

The Sect Leader of MOUNT HUA SECT, Dragon Blossom True Person, suddenly sharpened his gaze.

“Absurd. How are we supposed to sit and watch while our main-sect disciples are serving in an unproven unit without so much as our permission? That is absolutely unacceptable.”

“In that case, we will have to remove this line from the Alliance Council Statutes.”

Je Gal Munho’s voice turned cool.

“‘The Alliance Law is inviolable, and no one belonging to the Alliance of the Martial World is free from its decrees. Even the Alliance Leader, once the period of protection under the special Alliance Leader provisions has ended, can be punished under the law.’”

“...!!”

“If you have no intention of granting even that level of authority to your unit commanders, then I shall resign my post as military advisor as well.”

Dragon Blossom True Person was flustered.

“H-how can you say such a thing?”

“For the first time in a long while, the strength of the White Path has been gathered once more into the Alliance of the Martial World. The Grand Public Officers gathered here all represent their respective sects.”

Je Gal Munho looked around at the Grand Public Officers.

The eyes that were usually filled with gentle wisdom now shone with a severity like none before.

“When you agreed to the founding of the Alliance, I believed that every Grand Public Officer here had resolved to submit to the solemnity of the Alliance Law.”

With a tongue of three inches, Je Gal Munho overwhelmed the entire hall.

Inwardly, Mo Yonggun clicked his tongue.

I’ve been completely outplayed.

He didn’t know whether there was some kind of arrangement between Je Gal Munho and Yeon Hojeong.

But because of Yeon Hojeong’s unusual actions, Je Gal Munho had gained the justification he needed to bring the Grand Public Officers to heel. And Je Gal Munho had not let that splendid opportunity slip through his fingers.

Now, no one would be able to ignore Je Gal Munho’s words. Not even Mo Yonggun, who had pieced together how the situation had unfolded.

“Ah, pardon me for interrupting while you are speaking.”

Ga Deoksang scratched his head. A shower of white dandruff fell.

“Since all the Grand Public Officers are gathered anyway, may I share one fresh piece of information that just came in?”

Je Gal Munho nodded.

“Please speak freely, Deputy.”

“Thank you.”

Ga Deoksang drew in a quiet breath.

“Since we’re already talking about the dark path, some dark-path figures have appeared whom even the Alliance council cannot afford to ignore.”

“And who would those be?”

“The disciples of the Battle King.”

“...!!”

“And a few of them... are closer than you might think.”

*****

A space filled with darkness.

Within it, two pairs of blazing ghostly eyes appeared.

“They call it the Alliance of the Martial World, was it?”

“Yes.”

“So the orthodox rats have founded an Alliance of the Martial World.”

“Yes.”

“Have they perhaps caught on to our movements?”

“We are keeping all possibilities open, but I judge the probability that they know to be low.”

“If they do not know about us, then why would an Alliance of the Martial World be founded at such a time?”

“We have not yet been able to determine their detailed reasons. However, the prevailing opinion is that the extermination of the Ming Clan of the Nine Provinces became the spark for an orthodox alliance.”

“I see.”

“We have not yet observed anything unusual in their movements. We should be cautious, but it does not seem necessary to delay our plans because of the Alliance of the White Path.”

“I had no intention of delaying. But we must be sufficiently cautious. If we were some depraved cult reveling in vice, that would be one thing, but we must become fog. At least until we reach an occupancy rate of seven-tenths, we will maintain our current structure.”

“Understood.”

“Fortunately, ‘he’ has awakened, so it seems our grand design will accelerate by more than ten years.”

“He has finally awakened?”

“Yes.”

“...”

“It is a good thing, but do not get too excited. We will proceed step by step, just as we have until now.”

“I will bear that in mind.”

“...It’s going to be a long war. A very tedious, very long war.”