NOVPUBIn the darkness, Nabiliyeong had been by his side for a long time.
Since the four evil spirits had disappeared to carry out their mission, she had been waiting beside him the entire time.
Listening intently to his words with a joyful expression, she nodded along, yet she maintained a cool and calculated judgment.
‘He’s starting to doubt me. This is some kind of test.’
For him, favor and suspicion were like the two sides of the same coin.
The more he valued a person’s abilities, the more he suspected them.
Nabiliyeong had never failed, but the events she was involved in never went perfectly according to his plans, which was enough reason for him to doubt her.
For that reason, before this operation, he had given Nabiliyeong no information and had kept her close to ensure she wouldn’t stray.
‘If today’s operation succeeds, his suspicion will grow. But if it fails, I’ll be called upon for important tasks more frequently.’
At this moment, there was only one thing Nabiliyeong could do.
To wait without showing any anxiety.
Though it appeared he was neglecting her by keeping her close, he was still observing her using one of his senses.
Nabiliyeong, ever so careful, ensured that she left no hint of suspicion, even as she took slow, measured breaths.
Then, she saw him manipulating a formation.
‘That formation he’s handling must be a communication formation. Is he receiving a report?’
No voice was audible.
He was feeling the formation, taking in the information through his skin.
From the way he handled the formation, it seemed like he was listening to a chaotic report.
‘Even so, he wouldn’t rely solely on a chaotic report. Chaos has been absent from the mortal realm for so long; it hasn’t fully adapted. He wouldn’t leave all the information to himself.’
As Nabiliyeong had expected, he was receiving reports in other ways.
When he released his energy, the formation transformed into a written form, not something chaotic in nature.
Nabiliyeong pondered how many people were involved in this situation.
‘It’s clear now. He didn’t just leave everything to Do-cheol.’
From the beginning, he hadn’t intended to use only Do-cheol.
The command to leave everything to Do-cheol might have been given just to show Nabiliyeong.
He seemed to be setting up multiple traps of suspicion for Nabiliyeong.
‘This must be an important event. I want to mess it up, but I have no way to intervene. But I know that even if I don’t act...’
Nabiliyeong waited joyfully, thinking of the people she had seen in the dragon palace.
After what seemed like a long wait, he spoke.
"Nabiliyeong, prepare to welcome the four evil spirits."
Before she could answer that she would obey, he added another command.
"Bring the item."
Not only was he instructing her to guide the four evil spirits, but he had given another order.
Nabiliyeong immediately understood the purpose behind this command.
But pretending not to know anything, she complied without hesitation.
"I will follow your command."
Nabiliyeong bowed deeply, hiding a smile.
Just hearing these two commands made Nabiliyeong realize that the four evil spirits had failed.
She had been given permission to meet the four evil spirits herself, and she called for attendants to retrieve the item the master had ordered.
The condition of the four evil spirits was not good.
Do-cheol looked complicated, torn between humiliation, relief, and anxiety. Do-ol seemed a little less affected, but still similar.
The only ones who appeared unscathed were Gung-gi, who was smiling, and Chaos, whose thoughts were unreadable.
"Report."
He pointed his long finger at Gung-gi.
It was clear that Do-cheol was the one who had been assigned this mission, but the master didn’t even glance at him.
Gung-gi, wanting to avoid making the same mistake as last time, immediately began reporting the key information.
"I report on Seong Guk-eon. It is certain that he has colluded with the nobles. He was seen traveling with Hwang Ho. There are other true tribes who have cooperated with Seong Guk-eon."
It seemed that Gung-gi had moved separately to carry out the master's orders.
Gung-gi’s report continued.
"I believe Seong Guk-eon is also in collusion with the Ma Tribe and the Fomor Demon Tribe."
"Why do you think that?"
"When we escaped, the Black Demon was seen collecting the body of Seong Guk-eon’s grandfather, Seong Hyeong-woo, along with a human."
Others among the four evil spirits understood Gung-gi’s reasoning.
There would be no reason for the Black Demon to risk its life and collect a human corpse in the chaos unless it had a connection with Seong Guk-eon.
If Seong Guk-eon had been secretly working with the Black Demon and had planned to retrieve the body, it made sense.
Furthermore, there was a plausible connection between them.
"The Ma Tribe led by the Black Demon is based in Hongcheon, Gangwon-do. This is also where Seong Guk-eon’s family home is located. He has visited regularly."
The Black Demon rarely left its base, but if Seong Guk-eon had visited his hometown and met the Black Demon each time, they could have formed a close bond.
Next, Gung-gi reported on the Fomor Demon Tribe.
"Someone was tracking the traces of a dimensional shift that occurred at Eungwang High. Upon investigation, it turned out to be the Fomor Demon Tribe. They managed to recover some of the erased footage from the recording device, which showed them talking to a fake Seong Guk-eon left behind at Eungwang High."
Had Seong Guk-eon been involved with the Black Demon, there might have been suspicions regarding the Fomor Demon Tribe. However, no one raised objections.
While it seemed impossible for the Black Demon to recruit both the Ma Tribe and the Fomor Demon Tribe simultaneously, the Fomor Tribe had no conflicts with the Ma Tribe, so the situation was different.
Moreover, Seong Guk-eon hadn’t visited Hongcheon as often as he had traveled abroad, but he had made several overseas trips.
It was possible that during one of these trips, he had met with the Fomor Demon Tribe.
Nabiliyeong listened to Gung-gi’s report and began to think about the events they were dealing with and Seong Guk-eon.
‘The Fomor Demon Tribe recently returned to the Korean Peninsula. The reason is unknown, but it’s common for true tribes to come to the peninsula seeking spiritual energy, so people paid attention but didn’t question the reason too much.’
Gung-gi seemed to think Seong Guk-eon had summoned the Fomor Demon Tribe, but Nabiliyeong thought differently.
She doubted that Seong Guk-eon had been aware of the assassination plan from so long ago.
Her reasoning, though, was based on weak assumptions.
‘Seong Guk-eon never liked true tribes. He didn’t seem to have been pretending. It would have been hard for him to change his mind. Would he entrust his life to the true tribes? What happened? And his information gathering... I’m suspicious of that.’
She found it odd that Seong Guk-eon had detected the assassination plot and pinpointed the location of Seong Hyeong-woo.
If he had the power to move the true tribes, it made sense that he could gather such information.
However, Nabiliyeong didn’t fully accept this reasoning.
‘If a righteous and upright man like Seong Guk-eon had such information, he would have intervened in the events that happened so far.’
But the four evil spirits had a different perspective.
It was common for politicians to ignore things that didn’t harm their interests, even if they had plenty of information.
If Seong Guk-eon had been pretending not to know until the assassination threat emerged, his actions made perfect sense.
"Seong Guk-eon detected the assassination plan and prepared a decoy, bringing in three powerful true tribes to protect himself. It seems that this event will connect him to the Joo Group’s heir."
They thought the key players in this plot were Seong Guk-eon, not the nobles.
The main reason they believed this was because the Black Demon had taken the risk of retrieving Seong Hyeong-woo’s corpse.
If the nobles were at the center of this, they wouldn’t waste time looking for a human corpse when they already knew the unsa had been captured.
Given the nature of the nobles, they would have tried to prevent a human like Maeng Hyo-don from dying, but they wouldn’t have gone as far as retrieving the body.
"That’s all."
Gung-gi finished his report.
Everything Gung-gi reported was true, but the added speculations were far from the truth.
This had all been part of a plan orchestrated by the master.
By focusing attention on Seong Guk-eon, they made it difficult to target him. 𝖓𝖔𝖛𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝖔𝔪
If the plan went according to the mastermind’s will, targeting Seong Guk-eon would be nearly impossible.
‘Gung-gi thinks this, but what about him?’
Nabiliyeong vaguely suspected that the mastermind behind this plot wasn’t Seong Guk-eon but someone else, someone who wore a crow mask.
Meanwhile, the master gave no response to Gung-gi’s report, listening silently.
This time, the master pointed at Do-cheol.
"Report."
Do-cheol, seemingly prepared, began speaking frantically.
"That congressman has a powerful higher being attached to him! When we take his eyes..."
Do-cheol was desperately trying to excuse his failure, insisting that it wasn’t his lack of ability.
Although the content of his report was true, his whining had mixed in.
Do-cheol acted as if the whole plan would fall apart unless he killed Seong Guk-eon immediately.
‘Was Seong Guk-eon really the one Do-cheol was facing...?’
The more Nabiliyeong listened to Do-cheol, the more she thought of the crow mask.
Whoever wore that mask could easily fool Do-cheol into thinking he was dealing with Seong Guk-eon.
When Do-cheol finished his long and rambling report, the master spoke again.
"...That’s all."
Do-cheol felt as if his throat was dry from the tension.
The master said nothing, just listening to the report.
Do-cheol had failed not only against Seong Guk-eon but also Maeng Hyo-don, and now he had lost the unsa.
He had exhausted most of the power he drew from the unsa in the final escape and counterattack, and the garden he had been managing had completely collapsed.
It was a situation where the punishment of being bound by the formation and receiving retribution for his failures seemed imminent, but the master didn’t blame him.
Instead, the master spoke to Nabiliyeong.
"Nabiliyeong, bring that thing here."
"I’ll do as you command."
Nabiliyeong didn’t understand why the master gave this task to her instead of Do-cheol, but soon after, a swarm of butterflies appeared and left something before vanishing.
It was a massive brazier.
It was the same kind of brazier that had held the unsa.
The master spoke.
"Feng Bai, Wu Sa, and the unsa all demonstrate their true strength when they are together, but now the unsa is in trouble. This is why I created this brazier."
The unsa had a different role from Feng Bai and Wu Sa.
However, killing him would significantly damage the symbolism, and keeping him alive to move together would be risky.
Therefore, the master had devised a way to neither kill nor save the unsa but to enhance the power of Feng Bai and Wu Sa.
This brazier was the tool to utilize the unsa’s power and maintain the symbolism while connecting with Feng Bai and Wu Sa.
"I will engrave the formation connected to the brazier on the remaining three evil spirits."
Do-cheol realized what was happening and was horrified.
The master was trying to assign the role of the unsa to Do-cheol.
It was clear that the master was treating Do-cheol as if he didn’t exist.
The fire that roared from the brazier, as if it were the unsa’s scream, came to mind.
Do-cheol wanted to beg for his life and request clemency from the other evil spirits.
"Ugh...!"
But his mouth wouldn’t open.
The master seemed to have sealed his mouth with a formation, frustrated by Do-cheol’s lengthy report.
Do-cheol struggled, looking at the other evil spirits.
When he sent a desperate glance to the others, he felt despair.
The remaining three were rejoicing.
They were enjoying the master’s malice and Do-cheol’s despair.
Flare!
As Do-cheol was thrown into the brazier, the flames ignited immediately after the connection was made.
Instead of Do-cheol’s screams, all that could be heard was the sound of something burning.
Just as it had when the unsa was inside the brazier.
