Chapter 92
Translator: T_Fan
‘Society Head Badger is going to inspect it personally?’
When had he ever made such a promise?
Of course he hadn’t.
Lee Hyun picked up the jade slip on the table again. At the very end was a phrase he had never seen before.
「Guaranteed by the Northern Xuan Council of Senior Elders.」
“That… society head. Does he come here often?”
Mountain Goat nodded.
“He presides over a gathering once every year.”
“Since when?”
“For about thirty years. Normally, the senior elders handle matters, but this time the item is so valuable that he said he would inspect it personally.”
‘Thirty years….’
Was this an aftereffect of the time he had spent shut away in his tunnel?
Even so, around that time he had gradually begun recovering and had occasionally appeared at contact points wearing the Badger mask. Granted, none of those gatherings had involved the Northern Xuan Council of Senior Elders that Mountain Goat was talking about.
“I may be an inspector directly under the society head, but that man isn’t the Society Head……”
“Truly?”
Confusion entered Mountain Goat’s voice.
“I heard that you have served since the predecessor’s time, Inspector, so I naturally assumed you already knew.”
Lee Hyun’s hand stopped.
“The predecessor?”
“Yes. I was told the current society head is his successor.”
‘Ah.’
Rather than someone imitating his face and presence, they had simply taken advantage of his long disappearance and turned him into the dead ‘predecessor society head’!
‘I’m still alive…’
“I warned everyone not to trust masks or titles. What made you believe that man was the successor society head?”
“I had my doubts at first as well, but the Golden Core senior elders who have mediated disputes between contact points over the past several decades vouched for him through separate channels. They all said he had inherited the position from the predecessor society head.”
“Did you personally verify some token of succession or a message sent by the predecessor society head?”
“There was nothing wrong with the senior elders’ jade tokens or letters of introduction. However, every message concerning the succession came through them. Since the same news arrived from different contact points….”
Mountain Goat hurriedly added,
“How could a Foundation Establishment member like me question the guarantees of Golden Core senior elders above me?”
“So even the supposed wishes of the predecessor society head amount to nothing more than their word. Then when did this whole system of senior elders come into existence?”
“That much I do not know….”
Lee Hyun scratched his head.
When he thought about it, the situation was not especially strange.
No matter how compartmentalized an organization was, strength ultimately mattered most in the cultivation world.
The Two Heavens Society operated through a cell-based structure in which each member was linked to only a handful of contacts.
That also meant that if a Golden Core member started doing something suspicious, the Foundation Establishment cultivators who were supposed to oppose them had only a few people they could turn to for help.
What if several Golden Core cultivators positioned between those cells colluded, declared themselves senior elders, and vouched for one another?
If they used their Golden Core strength to fabricate even the position of society head, who could stop them?
Just because the restrictions on a jade token were intact did not mean everything its owner said was true. Separate lines of communication meant little if they all ultimately led back to the same people.
From the days of the Qutian Society through the founding of the Two Heavens Society, there had been almost no Golden Core members, so Lee Hyun had never seriously considered such a weakness.
‘Should I have banned Golden Core cultivators from joining in the first place? But having Golden Core cultivators around has its advantages too, and it is convenient… We can even sell Tier-3 spirit plants through the Society…’
Come to think of it, a member who had joined while at Foundation Establishment might later achieve Core Formation. It was not as though he could congratulate someone on successfully forming their core and then ask them to leave the Society.
‘In the end, the real problem was letting a few bastards monopolize the communication lines and vouch for one another.’
When Lee Hyun asked a little more about the Council of Senior Elders’ structure and trading practices, Mountain Goat answered in detail to the extent of his knowledge.
Some contact points in northern Xuan, northwestern Heng, and even northern Jing were apparently conducting their trades through the Council of Senior Elders.
At first, the Council had earned people’s trust by mediating disputes that arose during trades, covering losses when small merchant companies fled without paying, and providing escorts for long journeys.
But once enough members began following them, they had started scrutinizing which organizations their trading partners belonged to, then gradually began demanding unreasonable cuts for their own benefit.
Lee Hyun leaned back in his chair.
‘I see.’
“You will still receive payment for the purchase. You needn’t worry about that.”
“I’m merely checking the terms before selling the item. Is this place called Qingshi Ridge where the successor society head wants to meet me?”
“Yes. It’s an abandoned mining region in northwestern Heng Kingdom.”
After parting with Mountain Goat, Lee Hyun decided to investigate further before meeting the senior elders.
…
Three days later, at a contact point in western Xuan Kingdom.
Two jade slips lay before Lee Hyun, who was wearing the Cicada mask.
One contained an interim report on the request to purchase medicinal ingredients, while the other contained settlement records for recently completed trades.
They had yet to obtain all the Spirit-Storing Ginseng needed for the Essence-Cultivating Pills, but the other ingredients were being gathered faster than expected.
“Things are progressing well.”
“We should be able to secure everything by the next gathering.”
The member sitting across from him replied.
As Lee Hyun read the second jade slip, he pointed to one entry.
“The brokerage fee on this trade is unusually high.”
“That’s because it passed through Heng and Jing. The Council of Senior Elders takes a separate share in exchange for guaranteeing the trade.”
“By guarantee, do you mean they compensate you if the other party fails to pay?”
“That was how it started… but these days they charge it on every trade that passes through the Council. It’s basically a toll for using their contact network.”
The other member looked somewhat uncomfortable.
Lee Hyun was dumbfounded. Even he had made members agree on their shares in advance out of consideration for everyone involved, yet someone else was using brute force to extort spirit stones from them?
‘And here I am, the society head, not even taking my cut first…!’
“Can’t you trade through somewhere else?”
“We can. But sometimes we need items available only through their side…. Since everything is connected through separate cells, it becomes inconvenient if a particular route is blocked. On top of that, the senior elders have entrenched themselves at major hubs throughout the Nine Kingdoms of Yunzhou…”
Perhaps the member across from him had accumulated quite a bit of resentment, because he subtly began reporting the Council of Senior Elders’ abuses to Lee Hyun in his capacity as an inspector.
Lee Hyun nodded.
The Council of Senior Elders was definitely a problem!
If a toll was added on top of the agreed shares, the seller received less while the buyer paid more. If that reduced the volume of trade and made members distrust one another, they would eventually have no reason to use the Two Heavens Society at all.
As the society head, he could not overlook this.
“Have you ever reported this problem elsewhere?”
“There hasn’t really been anyone to tell…”
…
Lee Hyun visited two more contact points afterward.
Fortunately, among the numerous contact points he knew as society head, only a small portion had been drawn into the Council of Senior Elders’ dealings. There were still members who did not even know the Council existed.
Reactions varied even within areas under the senior elders’ influence, but most members simply accepted it as a change in how trades were conducted.
Lee Hyun spread out the ledgers he had collected from each contact point and compared the request details and settlement amounts for the same trades.
As far as he could verify, most had adhered to the agreed shares. Yet every trade that passed through the Council of Senior Elders had inevitably acquired fees that had not existed at the outset.
‘They must have made quite a fortune by now.’
The pills Lee Hyun supplied accounted for only a portion of all trade conducted through the Two Heavens Society.
Descendants of alchemists who had split away from the Danxiao Sect long ago still remained in many places, and the network also connected families that cultivated spirit herbs with merchant companies dealing in spirit materials. Skimming even a little from all those transactions would accumulate a considerable number of spirit stones.
…
Several days later, Qingshi Ridge.
Several collapsed mine shafts remained along the mountainside. After the deposits had nearly stopped producing spirit materials, people had ceased coming here altogether.
Upon reaching the designated contact point inside a mine shaft, Lee Hyun sensed the flow of earth qi cut off unnaturally in the rock wall beside the door.
When he lightly probed with his senses, he found thick iron plates laid behind the stonework and beneath the floor.
‘Is this meant to counter the Earth Escape Art?’
While the guard checked his jade token, Lee Hyun examined the energy beneath his feet a little more carefully.
The iron plates were thick, but their composition was simple. Beyond them lay ordinary soil and bedrock, and a short distance away was the abandoned shaft he had passed on his way in.
‘Once I’m through the plate with the Metal Escape Art, I’ve got an escape route.’
He could also sense the energy of a formation inside the walls, but fortunately, it was a type Lee Hyun recognized. The iron plates themselves had no restrictions engraved into them to prevent escape arts.
It was suspicious, but he had no intention of turning back yet. He needed to see for himself who the false society head was and just how many of the senior elders were in league with him.
The door opened to reveal a vast cavern.
Several halls and storehouses stood inside, and they had even built a small pond in the center. Illumination stones embedded in the ceiling cast a gentle glow.
They had built an estate inside a mine shaft!
Even he, the society head of the Two Heavens Society and an expert in tunnels, had never indulged in such extravagance.
Lee Hyun walked past the pond with a dumbfounded expression, then slowed his steps.
A stone statue of a badger stood before the hall farther inside.
‘Huh?’
A stone tablet rested beneath it.
「Approach this as though you are laying the foundation for an empire where even your descendants will serve the Two Heavens Society and many families will live for generations. Final injunction of the First Society Head.」
‘…….’
Lee Hyun entered the hall.
…
A man in a brown long robe embroidered with gold thread sat in the seat of honor, wearing a Badger mask.
Heavy magical power that he had made no attempt to conceal pressed down upon the entire hall, and a presence no weaker could be felt from behind the folding screen.
An early Golden Core cultivator!
And there was more than one!
Even then, Lee Hyun found himself thinking something completely unrelated.
‘The snout on that thing is longer than the one on my real mask, and it looks way more expensive too.’
Once Lee Hyun took his seat, three people emerged from behind the folding screen.
There was Crane, radiating the magical power of an early Golden Core cultivator, White Weasel, who had reached Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, and Toad, who was at mid Foundation Establishment.
False Badger, seated at the head of the room, spoke in a low voice.
“So you are Cicada, the inspector who served the predecessor society head. I have heard of your reputation, but this is the first time we have met.”
“I don’t recall seeing any record of the Council of Senior Elders selecting a new society head.”
White Weasel, one hand tucked inside a sleeve, gave Crane a slight nod.
At Lee Hyun’s calm observation, Senior Elder Crane snorted.
“You’re too young to know this, but our investigations show that this Society has existed longer than the lifespan of a Golden Core cultivator! What would a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator like you know to speak so recklessly? How long are you going to keep prattling about some ghost of a predecessor from ages past? When the society head exists in name alone and never so much as shows his face, isn’t it only natural for those with power to step forward and take control of the organization?”
At that moment, White Weasel slid a new jade token and a red jade plaque onto the table. Faint, sinister ripples from a restriction capable of binding a cultivator’s primordial spirit emanated from the jade plaque.
“There is no need for a lengthy discussion. Leave your primordial-spirit imprint on this jade plaque as proof that you will submit to the Council of Senior Elders’ way of doing things. If you, who served directly under the predecessor society head, leave your imprint, the other branches that know you will find it easier to accept the Council’s authority. In return, we will allow you to retain your position as inspector.”
White Weasel gestured, and the lid of a small chest in the corner opened.
More than a dozen old jade tokens with broken restrictions had been tossed carelessly inside. Several even bore dried bloodstains.
“They belonged to those who stubbornly insisted on keeping their old jade tokens. I trust that you will make a wiser choice, Inspector.”
‘These bastards… So this is how they’ve been putting collars around the necks of the existing members.’
Lee Hyun was thoroughly enraged.
If he had been an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, trusting the Two Heavens Society would have landed him in disaster.
How could anyone establish a steadfast Dao heart after placing their primordial spirit in someone else’s hands?
Lee Hyun coldly pushed the jade plaque away.
“You want me to hand over my primordial spirit? Since when did the Two Heavens Society start playing at being a heretical cult? More importantly, I came here to trade Yin Soul Grass, so let’s hear the terms.”
He wanted to punish those before him immediately, but they might still have some means he had yet to see. Just because he could escape with the Metal Escape Art did not mean he had any reason to fight them in a place they had prepared for themselves.
For now, he intended to keep discussing the trade, learn more, and then use the appraisal of the spirit herb as an excuse to lure them outside the mine.
When Lee Hyun took a jade casket from his storage pouch and opened the lid, the atmosphere in the hall instantly turned eerie.
Inside was Yin Soul Grass with a medicine age of over nine hundred years, a faint spirit light flowing over it. At the sight of a perfectly intact Tier-3 spirit herb, both False Badger and Crane’s eyes visibly changed.
False Badger tried to pull the jade casket toward himself with the Telekinesis Art, but Lee Hyun stopped him.
“Payment first. High-grade spirit stones are acceptable as well.”
“Excellent quality! However, attempting to circulate an item of this caliber privately without the Council of Senior Elders’ prior approval is a clear violation of Society rules.”
“A violation of Society rules?”
“Indeed. Therefore, the Council of Senior Elders will confiscate all of this Yin Soul Grass as a special contribution. However, if you leave your primordial-spirit imprint on that jade plaque and come under our command, we will graciously award you a hundred mid-grade spirit stones.”
“…”
When Lee Hyun returned the jade casket to his storage pouch, Crane rose to his feet as though blocking the way out and unleashed his killing intent.
“You call yourself an inspector, yet how can you be this slow on the uptake? Now that you’ve entered this room, you have only two choices. Leave your imprint, or leave as a corpse.”
White Weasel was already gripping the formation plate inside his sleeve. Lee Hyun slowly rose from his seat.
“Are all the people behind this gathered here?”
False Badger shook his head.
“Give it up. These are the instructions handed down by the grand elder of northern Jing. The Golden Core senior elders are not confined to this place alone. No matter who you complain to, nothing will change, so kneel and submit at once. We’re only holding back because we don’t want to damage the Tier-3 spirit herb, and even our patience has limits!”
‘The so-called society head follows the grand elder’s instructions?’
Apparently, that expensive Badger mask was nothing more than a figurehead.
White Weasel poured spiritual power into the formation plate.
Rrrrrumble―
The massive stone door slammed shut, and blue formation inscriptions appeared across the surrounding walls and lit up in unison. They had used the formation to seal off every section not covered by iron plates.
As the formation inscriptions intertwined along the walls and ceiling, a barrier sealing the entrance descended over the restrictions that prevented the mine from collapsing.
For cultivators, breaking through thick iron plates was not particularly difficult, but things were different in the middle of a battle.
A Foundation Establishment member would never have enough time to break through an iron plate and flee with the Earth Escape Art right under the noses of Golden Core senior elders.
“You walked into the net on your own two feet. Blame your own stupidity!”
The dust kicked up when the stone door struck the floor had yet to settle.
Moving in perfect coordination like seasoned bandit cultivators, the two Golden Core cultivators launched their magic treasures at the same time.
Rrrrrumble!
The Azure Thunder Mother-Child Rings shot from Crane’s sleeve and instantly split into nine rings of lightning in midair. The cramped hall became a prison of blue lightning as the rings closed in from every direction.
At the same time, the Golden Light Pagoda thrown by False Badger swelled until it nearly touched the ceiling, then rained dozens of golden rays down upon Lee Hyun’s head.
The combined assault of the two magic treasures was far faster than expected. Before Lee Hyun could even slip beneath the floor, the lightning rings had already swept in around his feet.
Their power was a clear step above even the claws of the Tier-3 Silver-Eyed Sea Eagle he had fought not long ago.
Clatter!
Just before the attacks struck, the Six-Leaf Shield shot upward. Its six shield plates interlocked and unfolded into a defensive barrier.
BOOOOM! K-K-KRANG!
A deafening explosion tore through the hall. The shockwave swept outward, pulverizing the surrounding tables and pillars in an instant.
Nine streams of Azure Thunder crashed into it from all directions while golden rays hammered down from above. Even the Six-Leaf Shield, an exceptional supreme-grade magic tool listed in the Yunzhou Artifact Appraisal, struggled to withstand the relentless barrage.
Crack!
Cracks spread across the surfaces of the two forward shield plates that were distributing the impact, and pieces broke away from their edges. The mother ring seized the opening and slammed head-on into them, sending even the remaining four plates flying in every direction.
The instant the Six-Leaf Shield’s defensive formation collapsed, Lee Hyun retrieved the damaged shield plates and flung himself backward.
The violent wind shredded the hem of his robe, but the body protected by the Three-Molt Silkworm Robe remained completely unscathed.
“Looks like you got cocky because you had an exceptional supreme-grade magic tool. Now that your shield is broken, you’re finished!”
Pressing his advantage, Crane tightened the nine lightning rings around Lee Hyun from all directions while False Badger’s Golden Light Pagoda bore down as though intending to crush Lee Hyun, who had been driven against the wall.
At the very instant the attacks reached him, Lee Hyun slipped smoothly into the floor.
“The Earth Escape Art? Fool! That’s a profound iron plate!”
False Badger burst into mocking laughter.
But in the next instant, the black iron plate exposed beneath the displaced earth rippled like water and swallowed Lee Hyun without a trace.
“Th-The Metal Escape Art?!”
The Metal Escape Art was far more difficult than the Earth Escape Art or Water Escape Art, and even among Golden Core cultivators, few had mastered it.
Crane hurriedly extended his divine sense beneath the floor, but the moment it touched the formation inscriptions sealing the seams between the iron plates, his senses scattered chaotically. It was difficult to track Lee Hyun through the soil and bedrock beyond the formation.
“Weasel! Under the floor…!”
At that moment, the floor right beside Crane rippled, and the Cicada mask emerged like a ghost.
He came out twice as fast as he had gone in!
As the masked figure shot into the air, a dazzling golden sun, bright enough to sting the eyes, rose from his left hand.
Crane, scared out of his wits, hurriedly took out a stele-shaped defensive magic treasure and raised it before himself. The instant the stele covered his entire body, the golden sun spread into an enormous palm, ripped through the air, and smashed into both the stele and Crane!
BOOOOM―
With the thunderous impact, the entire underground estate shook as though struck by an earthquake.
‘Urgh?!’
Shielded behind the stele, Crane’s eyes went wide as agony twisted through his organs.
He was clearly a Golden Core cultivator, while his opponent was only at Foundation Establishment… so how could a mere technique from his opponent, not even a magic tool, carry such overwhelming might that it felt capable of toppling a mountain?
Crrrunch! Craaack!
A tidal wave of force surged through the stele. Both of Crane’s knees slammed down, caving in the floor and even the iron plate beneath it.
The enormous golden fingers closed around the stele and Crane’s entire body, crushing them together.
“Help me!”
As Crane screamed, False Badger unleashed a barrage of rays at Lee Hyun with the Golden Light Pagoda. At the same time, the lightning rings of the Azure Thunder Mother-Child Rings controlled by Crane viciously tore in toward both of Lee Hyun’s flanks.
Even amid attacks converging from all directions, Lee Hyun maintained the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal and swung his right arm like a bolt of lightning.
K-K-KRANG!
The Azure Steel Sword flashed into Lee Hyun’s right hand, then carved through the air too fast for the eye to follow, spewing out stream after stream of ferocious sword qi!
As an enormous amount of Primordial True Qi flooded into it all at once, the blade of the supreme-grade Azure Steel Sword could not withstand the pressure and exploded with a deafening bang.
But the instant the sword shattered, the unleashed storm of violent Great Unity Heavenly Dipper Sword Qi ripped through False Badger’s golden rays in one sweep, then smashed into the approaching lightning rings and sent them flying in every direction.
One of them snapped a thick pillar in the remaining hall and buried itself in the wall.
‘Impossible! He’s knocking aside my magic treasure with something that’s not a magic treasure, not even an exceptional supreme-grade magic tool, all while suppressing Crane with one hand?!’
A chill ran down False Badger’s spine. This Inspector Cicada was a monster masquerading as a Foundation Establishment cultivator!
Judging by that monster’s combat power, this cramped underground estate was hardly advantageous to them. One moment of carelessness and both Crane and he would be slaughtered.
“Weasel! Release the formation and open the door! Now!”
Forget maintaining appearances, False Badger practically shrieked the words.
White Weasel, who had been cowering in the corner, jolted back to his senses and placed both hands on the formation plate to release the seal around the doorway.
At that instant,
Lee Hyun’s gaze pierced through the Cicada mask and locked onto White Weasel.
Flash!
White Weasel sensed the killing intent coming straight at him and hurriedly prepared to defend himself. But the invisible divine-sense needle imbued with vow power silently split into two in midair. One strand shot directly toward his brow, while the other curved behind his head and attacked from his blind spot!
Crack―
The protective Soul-Nourishing Jade hanging from White Weasel’s waist shattered in a burst of cloudy white light. It blocked the needle coming from the front, but failed to fully stop the second needle boring into the back of his head.
“Gah!”
The shock tore through his primordial spirit, and bright red blood burst from White Weasel’s eyes and nose.
As he staggered, unable to steady himself, Lee Hyun, still crushing Crane beneath the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal, kicked a fragment of the shattered Azure Steel Sword lying on the floor.
Bang!
The sword fragment, condensed with Primordial True Qi, shot forth like a meteor. It smashed straight through White Weasel’s body-protecting spirit light, split the formation plate in his hand in two, then pierced through the right side of his chest and hurled him into the rock wall behind him.
“Cough…!”
White Weasel spat blood and slid limply down the wall.
The barrier over the stone door, which had just begun to fade, thickened again.
The formation itself had been buried separately deep within the bedrock. What had been destroyed was merely the formation plate used to open and close the seal over the entrance. With the release hand seal interrupted midway, the stone door locked firmly in its closed state.
‘The door is sealed!’
False Badger’s hair stood on end. Breaking the stone door tangled with formation inscriptions by force would require several full-strength attacks, and there was no chance that monster would simply stand by and watch in the meantime.
Desperate to survive, he pulled another magic treasure from his storage pouch, a crimson mirror.
“Die!”
False Badger poured all his magical power into the Golden Light Pagoda above his head and the mirror before his chest. Spiritual pressure flooded the hall, so intense that an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator would have struggled even to breathe. Golden pagoda light and blood-red radiance formed a massive wall and surged toward Lee Hyun as if to swallow him whole.
At that very moment, the Sinking Moon Sword, the exceptional supreme-grade magic tool once ranked eighth in the Nanming Hundred Artifacts Register, appeared in Lee Hyun’s right hand.
With a smooth motion.
Lee Hyun’s calm gaze settled upon the slender blade, which carried a faint sheen of light.
Amid the storm of radiance pouring from the magic treasures, a single line he had retraced countless times while drawing ten thousand pictures appeared before him.
It formed one unbroken path along the outer edge of the spinning Golden Light Pagoda, through the center of the blood-red mirror shielding the body behind it, and onward to False Badger’s throat.
– Let intent precede the sword tip, yet never let the sword tip stray from that intent.
Divine sense and vow power tempered through the principles of the Vajra Wisdom Sword Scripture gathered atop the extremely compressed Great Unity Heavenly Dipper Sword Qi.
Some of it failed to meld with the sword qi and remained separate, but Lee Hyun forced even that unruly power down with sheer overwhelming strength and concentrated everything into the single point he had chosen.
Unable to withstand the absurd amount of brute force its master had crammed into it, even the exceptional supreme-grade Sinking Moon Sword screamed in protest.
Great Unity Wisdom Sword, First Form, Heavenly Dipper Single Point.
The instant Lee Hyun thrust the Sinking Moon Sword forward in one short motion, a streak of sword light exploded forth!
K-K-KRANG― BANG!
The launched sword qi grazed the outer edge of the Golden Light Pagoda at an angle, showering sparks everywhere. After forcibly shoving the solid pagoda aside, the sword qi did not scatter in the slightest and pierced straight through the very center of the mirror that moved to block it!
The blood-red bronze mirror cracked like a spiderweb before shattering with a sharp report.
At that exact instant, razor-sharp sword intent slammed into False Badger’s mind!
‘Gah!’
His primordial spirit was momentarily paralyzed, slowing his attempt to dodge by the slightest fraction.
The sword qi seized that opening and shot onward without hesitation, its tip piercing straight through False Badger’s throat.
Shnk!
False Badger felt something hot gush from his neck. He hurriedly raised a hand, but fresh blood sprayed between his fingers. A moment later, he collapsed helplessly before the tightly sealed stone door.
Thud.
Fragments of the blood-red bronze mirror scattered across the floor, while the ownerless Golden Light Pagoda shrank back down and rolled uselessly several times before losing its light.
Toad stood with his back pressed against the wall in the corner, clutching a talisman and barely daring to breathe.
Lee Hyun looked down at the Sinking Moon Sword, whose blade was now covered in hairline cracks with a small piece chipped from its tip, and clicked his tongue.
‘Hmm… Is it because I’m still inexperienced with sword condensation…? The sword can’t withstand it.’
Until he reached Major Attainment in the Sword Condensation Section of the Vajra Wisdom Sword Scripture, this was not a move he could use carelessly.
At that moment, Crane, still pinned down by the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal, shouted desperately.
“F-Fellow Daoist…! Please, stay your hand! There has been a misunderstanding!”
“Weren’t you planning to kill me if I refused to leave my imprint on that jade plaque?”
“Th-That was merely a rule established by that Badger and the senior elders of northern Jing! You cannot kill this old man! The trade networks throughout northern Xuan and the Heng region all pass through this old man! If this old man dies, all the payments and medicinal-ingredient trades currently tied up in those routes will be severed, and the Two Heavens Society will suffer a tremendous blow!”
Lee Hyun turned toward Toad in the corner.
“Suppose I let only one of you live. Can you take over Crane’s work?”
“O-Of course! Everything is stored in the warehouse! The ledgers record the owners of all consigned goods and every payment, and we have records of which contact points sent and received every item! I was the one who contacted the various points and settled the payments too! Crane only ordered me around and took his share!”
Lee Hyun looked down at Crane.
“You heard him. Besides, even if your death harms the Two Heavens Society, you still have to die.”
Crane’s expression changed instantly. He tried to make his golden core run rampant and detonate the Azure Thunder Mother-Child Rings lying on the floor, but,
BOOOOM!
Golden light erupted from the Sumeru Mountain-Suppressing Seal and crushed Crane’s chest and arms outright. Before the Azure Thunder Mother-Child Rings could even rise, sword light flashed and ended Crane’s life.
The Cicada mask turned toward the corner.
“Toad, will you remain loyal to the Two Heavens Society?”
⚬──────────✧──────────⚬
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