What Rage Left Behind (1)

They arrived in Jinju. First, he had them find out where those so-called elders of the Martial Alliance were.

“What? They already went into the Eon Clan?”

He was dumbfounded. He had hurried to stop them, but he was already too late. Now the Eon Clan would have realized that he was targeting them. Perhaps they were even making a fuss, claiming that he was framing the Eon Clan.

“What do we do now?”

Cheong Yeon asked. Neung Je-gang thought of a countermeasure.

“We have to find evidence.”

“How?”

Neung Je-gang pondered. Then he reached a conclusion.

“Wouldn’t it work if we caught one of them?”

Many women had disappeared. If it was to that extent, then one could say there were more than one or two people cultivating the Small-Hand Art through the accelerated method. Now that the Eastern Depot had arrested all the undertakers, they would not be able to kidnap women for a while.

“Sooner or later, a guy short on blood will crawl outside. There will be women inside the Eon Clan, but they will not be enough to solve it. Then they are certain to explode.”

Neung Je-gang had seen precisely through the situation.

“Keep watch, and if you see the Martial Alliance elders returning, send them to me secretly.”

Neung Je-gang gave that order to an agent of the Eastern Depot’s Field Agents Bureau. Then he began investigating the surroundings of the Eon Clan and the distribution of its buildings.

“Why are you looking at those?”

Ma-jil asked as if he was bored of only looking over the map.

“For someone like me, who enjoys moving secretly, just by looking at the surrounding environment, I can tell how one should move to avoid people’s eyes. Then wouldn’t a guy from the Eon Clan who needs blood also move along a route where he will not be caught by others? I am looking for that route. If we guard that place, at least one person will get caught.”

“What if no one comes out?”

Thwack.

Neung Je-gang hit Ma-jil on the head once for saying something unlucky.

“They will come out. I guarantee it. Once someone is tainted by demonic nature, their patience disappears. Then they are bound to move.”

That was also the reason why many among those who cultivated demonic arts were violent and hasty. Their patience hit rock bottom. That state would only be resolved after reaching a certain level or higher.

“It seems to be this side……. Gongsun Gyeong-in, how does it look to you?”

Like assassins, thieves also had certain paths along which they moved.

“I also think it is that side. But they could come out through this place too.”

The place Neung Je-gang had found was a spot leading from the rear garden to the outside, where there was no path at all for people to use. However, the place Gongsun Gyeong-in pointed to was none other than the Eon Clan’s front gate.

“That is true. If they have reached a certain level, at least outwardly, one would not be able to tell. Then what should we do? Should we give up on one place?”

He could not suggest splitting up to keep watch. That was because Neung Je-gang knew the power of the Small-Hand Art better than anyone. If someone other than himself encountered a person who had cultivated the Small-Hand Art, it would be difficult for them to survive.

“We give up on the front gate. In any case, we will guard the place that seems more likely than there.”

Of course, they were not going to guard it right now. No matter how hungry they were for blood, there would be no one who would step outside while the Martial Alliance elders were there.

Who knew what luxury they were enjoying, but the Martial Alliance elders simply would not come out. At any rate, it seemed Eon Cheong-gun was feeding them tremendously well.

Another day passed like that, and finally, those so-called Martial Alliance elders came out of the Eon Clan. An Eastern Depot agent brought them before Neung Je-gang.

“Did you confirm it?”

He had merely been introduced as a high-ranking Eastern Depot figure, but it seemed someone recognized Neung Je-gang’s face.

“Could Secret Shadow not have been mistaken? They said they had been falsely accused. They said they had a past grudge with Secret Shadow.”

The elders’ words were all the same. They were saying there was nothing wrong with the Eon Clan.

“If you know me, you should also know well that I am not someone who would speak nonsense. The Martial Alliance has truly rotted now.”

Neung Je-gang was also angered. Because people like this swaggered around as elders, the Martial Alliance had become as frustrating as it was now.

“What did you say?”

Still, they reacted sensitively to Neung Je-gang’s words. Well, since the Martial Alliance fed them, they at least had to pretend to be angry to this extent.

“Should I unpack your baggage right now? To see how much Eon Cheong-gun packed for you?”

When Neung Je-gang roared, only then did their momentum clearly diminish. If he really searched their luggage, they would probably attack him as if their lives depended on it. After all, they could not be caught having received bribes.

“You will be detained for the time being. You will return to the Martial Alliance and talk nonsense. And if it is confirmed that the Eon Clan is cultivating the Small-Hand Art, I will certainly tie you in as accomplices as well.”

Neung Je-gang pressed them strongly. These were the sort who would become arrogant and rush in if one showed even the slightest weakness.

“Detained! You cannot do that.”

“How dare you, do you know who we are?”

They tried to resist. But their opponent was Neung Je-gang. Neung Je-gang calmly took out the plaque of the Eastern Depot’s Deputy Commissioner.

“This is an order. If you do not obey quietly, I will immediately make your clans and sects end up like Kunlun.”

Though it was an honorary position, he had more than enough power to do that.

“One day, you will regret this arbitrary act.”

Some of them still made threats until the end, perhaps because they had pride, or perhaps because they truly believed in the Eon Clan.

“You don’t have to worry. By around today, we will be able to secure definite evidence.”

At Neung Je-gang’s overly firm words, the elders’ expressions also wavered.

They had long known Eon Cheong-gun. For that reason, they had not believed from the start that he was cultivating the Small-Hand Art. That was why they had been able to speak so forcefully even in the Martial Alliance meeting. They had said, what could Eon Cheong-gun possibly lack that he would do such a thing?

However, if the Eon Clan really was cultivating the Small-Hand Art, then along with the Eon Clan, their own lives were finished too. Their clans and sects would not be able to pass through safely either. They had heard very well how vicious Secret Shadow was, so they did not think those words would end as empty talk.

“What should we do?”

“Do you think things will end just because you say that now? The Eon Clan has already realized that I am watching them. It has already become impossible for this to end quietly. The crime of interfering with an Eastern Depot investigation, the crime of informing criminals of information, the crime of receiving bribes and defending criminals, the crime of resisting a detention order, and so on. This has already passed the stage where it can be forgiven. Admit your crimes quietly and cripple your own dantians. If you do that, I will not ask your clans and sects to bear any separate guilt.”

Neung Je-gang had not intended to go this far. If they had obediently accepted detention, he might have ended it with that. But to think they had dared resist. It was not as if they were seeing the Eastern Depot as some back-alley hoodlums.

“Th-that cannot…….”

“If you dislike that so much, then find evidence with your own hands that the Eon Clan is cultivating the Small-Hand Art. Then I will forgive you.”

The elders did not know what to do. By what skill could they find evidence? They had already gone in and told the other side to erase what little evidence there was.

“Shall I tell you one thing? While you were in the Eon Clan, did you perhaps not smell blood? The number of maidens already sacrificed by the Eon Clan to cultivate the Small-Hand Art exceeds two hundred. Do you know what that means? It means that blood ghosts who have already cultivated the Small-Hand Art to at least the fifth level through the accelerated method are swarming inside the Eon Clan!”

Neung Je-gang glared at them again with an angry face. As he talked, he had become angry again.

“Two hundred!”

The elders were also shocked. If that was true, then they truly had committed an unforgivable sin.

“Starting today, lie in ambush at the place I tell you. Soon, a guy who cultivated the Small-Hand Art will appear there. Until now, they must have endured because you people were inside the Eon Clan, but now that you have left, they will come outside again to seek maidens’ blood. At that time, either catch them or get beaten to death by them. It is one of the two. There is no other way.”

“U-understood.”

In the end, the elders decided to follow Neung Je-gang’s words and withdrew. They likely could not gamble with the fate of their clans and sects.

“Will they be able to catch them?”

Cheong Yeon asked.

“Is there any need for them to catch them? It does not matter even if they cannot. They only need to see and confirm it with their own eyes. What I need is their testimony, not necessarily evidence.”

“You mean evidence is not needed?”

“They are the ones who said the Eon Clan was innocent. If such people testify, that itself is evidence. In any case, in the end, all I need is for the Martial Alliance to recognize the Eon Clan as a public enemy and mobilize force. Ah, right. But what happened with the Black Alliance? It should be time for a reply to come.”

“There was actually a message from the Field Agents Bureau. They say the Black Alliance has already recognized the Eon Clan as a public enemy and sent elite warriors to destroy them.”

“Haha! Perhaps because the Eon Clan was connected to the Martial Alliance, they act very quickly.”

“The Martial Alliance may find it unpleasant.”

“I rather like them more than the Martial Alliance. At least they do not have rotten bastards like those.”

“That is true.”

Cheong Yeon had also once belonged to the Black Alliance, so naturally, he would feel more attachment to them than the Martial Alliance.

“But what should we do?”

“We will guard the Eon Clan’s front gate. That way, they will head out to seek blood toward the place where the Martial Alliance elders are.”

“Ah! You are herding them.”

“That is right. Most of them will probably die. Hehehe!”

Neung Je-gang had no intention of safely sending the Martial Alliance elders back. They would pay the price for the sins they had committed. At the hands of the Eon Clan they had defended so much.