Blood Pact Conference
But Ma Yugyeom, who had grabbed the sword hilt and tried to draw it, in the end did not pull it out.
No—he could not pull it out.
"Eek!"
He trembled, gripping the sword hilt, as though suppressed by some invisible force.
Just like when Cheokgang's killing intent had been blocked earlier, it seemed that the Blood Demon had pressed down on him with intangible energy.
To think he could render a peak master like Ma Yugyeom into such a state without even lifting a finger—it was astounding.
Suddenly, the thought I'd once had—that once I reached the supreme realm, I would launch an offensive against the Blood Sect—now felt laughable.
It was hollow.
The Blood Demon smiled softly, watching Ma Yugyeom's face clenched with gritted teeth, and then shifted his gaze to the next person.
Ma Yugyeom's expression soon turned dazed, and he released his grip on the sword hilt.
Perhaps he had despaired at the sight of an insurmountable wall.
After offering a few kind words to each squad leader—including Seolpung—he entered the conference hall.
We could only watch his back with troubled expressions.
The impression he left was too overwhelming.
Not only his dominating presence and effortless strength, but the fact that he had called each squad leader by name, leaving them with a friendly word, was a shock we could not easily recover from.
Behind me, Bisa-yeong muttered in a hollow voice.
"I don't even know who the real Alliance Leader is anymore."
I agreed.
Our own Alliance Leader, the Chivalry King Mo Yongjin, had offered nothing more than a perfunctory greeting.
I doubted he even remembered the names of the squad leaders—let alone those of the vice-chiefs or deputy vice-chiefs.
It was bitter.
We hadn't even fought, yet it already felt like defeat.
At that moment, a thread of voice transmission whispered at my ear.
It was Lady Cheongyeon's voice.
— Didn't something seem strange just now?
I frowned at her words.
Strange?
What exactly?
That the Blood Demon had seemed too agreeable?
But her next words made it clear that wasn't what she meant.
— I think the Blood Demon sent a voice transmission to Squad Leader Ma just now.
Huh? A voice transmission?
From the Blood Demon to Ma Yugyeom?
Startled, I asked back.
— Are you saying you intercepted it?
— No, of course not.
Naturally, that would have been impossible.
No one had ever been known to eavesdrop on a voice transmission.
Even absolute masters of the martial world might not have been capable of it.
She continued.
— But Squad Leader Ma, who had been trying to draw his sword, suddenly loosened his grip and looked shocked. It seemed as though the Blood Demon had told him something astonishing.
Her words made me glance again at Ma Yugyeom's face. His head hung low, his body trembling faintly as if in shock.
Honestly, I thought he had simply felt powerless before the sworn enemy of his sect.
I myself felt overwhelmed just being near; facing him directly must have been far worse.
Still, since it was Lady Cheongyeon—whose insight far surpassed mine—I could not dismiss her words.
And yet…
No matter how I thought about it, I could not imagine what it might have been.
What could the Blood Demon possibly have whispered to Ma Yugyeom at that moment?
An apology to Jeomchang Sect?
I could not guess.
In the end, the meeting ended as uneventfully as if it were a memory of a past life.
Once the Blood Demon and his four attendants—including Iron God Madness Cheokgang—departed, the Alliance Leader's party left Shiplidae without a single backward glance.
"Alliance Leader! Please take care!"
Deputy Chief Heon Yeongbo shouted himself hoarse after them, but since they completely ignored him and quickened their pace, it seemed he would continue to remain here even in this lifetime.
That same evening, as it was our Seventh Squad's turn for patrol, we went out at dusk to take our posts.
Lady Cheongyeon suddenly spoke to us.
"There's something I want to ask of you all."
We turned to her with puzzled expressions.
She had always been not only skilled in martial arts but also decisive and brilliant in all things.
Others often asked her for favors, but she had never once asked anyone for anything.
And yet, the words she spoke next stunned us even more.
For she said this while looking at us with her calm eyes:
"I want to believe it isn't so, but… perhaps sometime soon, I may end up dead."
Her sudden words left us dumbfounded.
"…What?!"
"Dead?! What are you saying, Cheongyeon?!"
That morning, when the Alliance Leader and his entourage passed in front of the lined-up Shiplidae members, Hae Cheongyeon sent a voice transmission to one of them.
— It's been a long time, Uncle Jegal.
It was to Jegal Jigang, the strategist of the Martial Alliance known as Heavenly Thunder.
He suddenly turned his head, eyes widening in shock. He had never expected to see her here.
— Aren't you Cheongyeon? Why in the world are you here?!
— There are reasons. Could you meet me in the forest afterward to talk? I'll be waiting.
After entering the conference hall, Jegal Jigang excused himself briefly and met Hae Cheongyeon in the forest.
"Cheongyeon greets Uncle."
"Cheongyeon! What on earth is going on?! Why are you on the frontlines?! Does Hae-hyeong know about this?!"
Hae Cheongyeon was both a friend of his treasured daughter Jegal Seoyul and the daughter of one of his few close friends.
For her to be here filled him with rising fury.
But Hae Cheongyeon replied calmly.
"Father doesn't know yet. But once I realized what was happening here, I couldn't just pretend ignorance. That wouldn't be the conduct of a righteous sect member, as Father taught me."
Jegal Jigang was momentarily at a loss for words.
He knew very well what kind of man her father was, and what he always emphasized most.
"No, but even so—this place is far too dangerous for someone still so young, and a woman at that."
But again she smiled faintly and shook her head.
"There's even a girl a year younger than me in our squad. And I'm twenty-one now—it's time I pulled my own weight. Besides, what I've learned here has been too shocking for me to turn away now."
What she had learned here…
At those words, Jegal Jigang gave her a complicated look.
Hae Cheongyeon smiled again and spoke.
"Please don't worry too much. It hasn't been that dangerous yet. And… I asked to see you, Uncle, because I have something to request."
Saying this, Hae Cheongyeon held out two sealed letters.
"I wrote letters to Seoyul and Father, but since I thought you would be coming for the conference anyway, I haven't sent them yet. Could I entrust these to you, Uncle?"
At her words, Jegal Jigang smiled and nodded.
"Very well. If that is your wish, so be it. I'll deliver them."
The two chatted warmly for a while longer before parting.
But the moment she turned away, the bright smile vanished from Hae Cheongyeon's face, replaced by grave seriousness.
And though she couldn't see it, the same was true of Jegal Jigang—his smile disappeared as well.
Hae Cheongyeon spoke to her companions.
"I've thought for some time that something about the current situation is strange. The dire conditions at the front, the dangerous demonic invaders, the mistakes of Demon Emperor's Blood Envoy and Jeomchang Sect, and even the Jegal Clan's secrecy. It is far too unnatural that all this is either unknown or misrepresented in the martial world. That led me to think—there must be a great power controlling the flow of information."
At her words, Bisa-yeong frowned.
"A great power? Who do you mean?"
Hae Cheongyeon answered.
"Most likely… the Martial Alliance itself."
Cheon Ju-eun asked, puzzled.
"But sister, isn't it common knowledge that we all took a secret oath? Sure, the intent is suspicious, but is it really that strange?"
Hae Cheongyeon shook her head.
"The oath itself is questionable, yes, but what troubles me most is how perfectly the secret has been kept."
"…What do you mean?"
"The frontline duty lasts five years. That means unless someone voluntarily extended, there should already be many who served here now active in the martial world. And anyone who survived five years here would be formidable, right? In that case, experts from the front should definitely have appeared somewhere. Especially in Guizhou, Sichuan, or Guangxi—all neighboring Yunnan."
Then she turned to Seonu Jin.
"Didn't you say you'd once received information about the frontlines? Did you meet someone who had actually served here?"
Seonu Jin shook his head gravely.
"No. In Guizhou, I never met a single person who truly came from the front. I didn't even hear rumors. The only place to get any information was from the Hao Clan."
Hae Cheongyeon looked around at the others again.
"Does that make sense to you? That there wouldn't be even one veteran in Guizhou, right next to Yunnan? And that in all the martial world, famed for how quickly rumors spread, not a single word leaks from the frontlines?"
Her companions' faces grew increasingly grim.
Na Seoyu swallowed hard.
"Cheongyeon… are you saying that means…?"
Around the same time, at his inn, Jegal Jigang stared at the sealed letters Hae Cheongyeon had entrusted him with.
He broke the seal and began to read.
But his face grew steadily darker as he read.
In her letter to her father, Hae Cheongyeon had described the frontline in detail: the demonic invaders pouring in, the dire situation where seasoned warriors died and only the young remained, and even the secrets concerning Jeomchang Sect.
At the end, she wrote that she could not understand why all of this must remain a secret, or how it was possible that none of it had reached the martial world.
It was, ultimately, a plea for her father to investigate.
When he finished reading, Jegal Jigang's stiff expression turned utterly blank.
After a long silence, he gave a faint smile, as if reaching a decision.
Then he began to burn the letter.
"Cheongyeon, Cheongyeon. A secret oath is a promise to keep a secret. For Seoyul's sake, I want to look the other way… but if I leave you be, sooner or later you'll tell your father everything. And I cannot bear for your father to know. So, I have no choice."
He sighed, thinking of her father.
"My apologies, Brother Hae. But… even if one of your three daughters disappears, you still have two left. All of this is because of your obstinate nature, so I beg your understanding."
Then he picked up his brush and began writing a letter—
A secret letter addressed to the Martial Alliance.
Late that night, Do Hee-yeong, one of the women in the Fifth Squad of the Shiplidae, suddenly sat up in bed.
It felt like she'd had a strange dream.
But upon waking, she could remember nothing at all.
Only a lingering daze in her head.
"How odd… what's wrong with me?"
Muttering, she tried to sleep again, but suddenly recalled the Blood Demon and his attendants she had seen during the day.
When he had greeted each squad leader in turn and all eyes had been fixed on him, she had felt something strange and looked toward the four who had accompanied him.
And then her eyes had met those of the smallest of them, the man in the bamboo hat.
At that moment, he had lifted his hat slightly and gazed directly at her.
His red eyes had filled her with discomfort.
'But I turned away right after that.'
She hadn't wanted to meet his gaze for even a moment longer.
Nothing else had happened.
Surely not…
Suddenly, fear gripped her.
Could she have been possessed then?
But she shook her head quickly.
Even if she was the weakest in the Fifth Squad, could a single glance really mean possession? Impossible.
If she had been possessed, she wouldn't even be able to think these thoughts.
'Yes, it can't be. I'm just overthinking it.'
Do Hee-yeong forced herself to that conclusion and lay down again.
The idea of being possessed by a cultist and forced to harm her comrades, only to be slain by them—that was too horrifying to even imagine.
She wanted to believe it could never happen to her.
But soon after she fell asleep, the nightmares began again. Nightmares she would forget the moment she awoke.
Ma Yugyeom slowly opened the door to his quarters.
Though no one was inside, his hand trembled faintly as it pushed the door.
With a stiff expression, he stepped in—only to freeze upon seeing a letter and a box neatly placed on his bed.
He shut his eyes tightly.
For a long while, he could not move.
Finally, he forced himself to breathe deeply and unfolded the letter.
His trembling hands revealed handwriting he instantly recognized.
Familiar—yet unseen for a very long time.
As he read, his face contorted further and further.
By the end, he crushed the letter in his fist and let out a wail.
"Uaaaaaaaahhh! Aaaahhhhhh!"
A voice wracked with deep resentment, sorrow, and despair.