Chapter 45
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Heading to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
* * *
The members of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult moved swiftly to leave Shaanxi.
They cut back on sleep, barely resting as they pressed onward.
Their goal was to escape Mount Hua's territory of Shaanxi before the sect could block their path again.
Was it thanks to their haste?
They managed to leave Shaanxi and enter Gansu without encountering the Mount Hua Sect.
“It's good to see you again like this.”
But their relief was short-lived.
They were eventually confronted by the Kongtong Sect, who blocked their way.
“The spot where you got me still aches so much I can't sleep.”
A portly, elderly Taoist stepped forward, glaring at Jinmyeong.
“You seem to have recovered well.”
“Hmph!”
Gok Yang, one of the Twin Elders of Kongtong.
The man whose stomach had been pierced by Jinmyeong, leaving him in critical condition, had recovered and returned to stand in their way.
“I have a debt to repay for what I suffered.”
A smile played on Gok Yang's lips.
But unlike his smile, his voice was dripping with killing intent.
It wasn't just his voice.
The aura emanating from him seemed to chill the very air around them.
“Tsk. Didn't you all give up back then?”
A cultist clicked his tongue and said.
“That's right. That business is over.”
When they had first headed to Shaanxi, Kunlun and Kongtong had failed to achieve their objective.
‘Though I doubt those people had any real purpose.’
The Kunlun Sect hated the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and they had even picked a fight in Qinghai.
They might have had a reason, but the Kongtong Sect had no cause to stop the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
In the end, they only fought because of the reward offered by the Kunlun Sect.
That was why they had been afraid of clashing with the main forces of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and had been forced to retreat without achieving anything.
With only Gok Yang, one of the Kongtong Sect's top masters, the Twin Elders, injured.
“But this is a different matter. I can't say there's no lingering resentment from back then, but that's not why we're blocking you.”
“Did Mount Hua ask you to?”
“They did. They said that young members of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult attacked a Mount Hua Sect escort agency and stole their treasures.”
Since when did an escort agency founded long ago by a lay disciple of Mount Hua become the Mount Hua Sect's agency?
‘They're not even a Taoist sect anymore.’
Jinmyeong thought the Mount Hua Sect was far too obsessed with the Yukga Escort Agency's affairs.
Hadn't they abandoned the Way of Taoism just to surpass Wudang?
So why were they so concerned about an escort agency established by a lay disciple from when they were still a Taoist sect?
‘Ah, is it because they receive a lot of money from that agency?’
Come to think of it, sects like the Nine Great Sects were essentially jobless organizations.
Unlike the martial clans, the Nine Great Sects didn't run businesses; they sustained themselves with donations from their disciples' families.
‘Or by receiving money in exchange for helping the sects of their lay disciples.’
The Yukga Escort Agency was the largest in Shaanxi.
It was possible they paid a hefty tribute to the Mount Hua Sect in return for support from its disciples.
‘We have to get through here before the Mount Hua Sect arrives.’
They had already broken through the Kongtong Sect once before.
Of course, it wouldn't be as easy as last time.
Before, they lacked a clear justification and couldn't expect support from the Righteous Alliance, so they hadn't used their full strength. But now, things were different.
If Mount Hua had found evidence, the Kongtong Sect would no longer fear the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult as they had before.
“Leader of the Demonic Shadow Unit, what should we do?”
“...”
The Leader of the Demonic Shadow Unit couldn't answer Jang Hu's question.
No matter how he racked his brain, he couldn't come up with a suitable answer.
They were too short on manpower.
He had requested help from other branches, but it was unlikely they would arrive in time.
Not that they could defeat both Mount Hua and Kongtong even if they did.
“There seems to be no other way. We'll have to do as before: scatter and make our own way back to the main cult...”
“Tsk. After calling us burdens and all that...”
Gye Buil clicked his tongue as he looked at the leader.
He couldn't possibly have a good impression of the man who had looked down on them so much, only to suggest they all fend for themselves in a crisis.
The others felt the same way.
“...I have nothing to say.”
The Leader of the Demonic Shadow Unit wouldn't have been able to defend himself even if he had ten mouths.
Who would have thought things would turn out this way?
Hadn't they mutilated the bodies specifically so the Mount Hua Sect couldn't find any traces?
“It was a misjudgment not to think the Mount Hua Sect would request aid from Kongtong.”
The Leader of the Demonic Shadow Unit frankly admitted his mistake.
He hadn't expected the prideful Mount Hua Sect to ask for help from another of the Nine Great Sects.
“No. You should have remembered what happened with the Kunlun Sect. If Kunlun asked for help, why wouldn't Mount Hua?”
Jinmyeong sneered at the leader.
He had no kind words for the man who had tried to hand him over to the Purple Mist Sword.
“The Mount Hua Sect and the Kunlun Sect are...”
“They're all the same, anyway.”
Even if Mount Hua is a bit stronger than Kunlun, they're both considered part of the Nine Great Sects.
You should have known that if Kunlun could do it, Mount Hua could too.
“What's important now is not that, but how we're going to solve this.”
Jinmyeong grinned at the Leader of the Demonic Shadow Unit.
“Maybe they'll let us go if we give them your head?”
“Young Master, that's going too far!”
It was the members of the Demonic Shadow Unit standing beside their leader who reacted to his words.
But Jinmyeong scowled.
“Why? Was it not too far when you people tried to hand me over to the Purple Mist Sword?”
“That was...”
Jinmyeong ignored the unit member's words and whipped his head around.
“That's not what's important.”
The ground seemed to be trembling.
He could feel a large number of people approaching from a distance.
“The Mount Hua Sect...”
The newcomers were none other than the warriors of the Mount Hua Sect.
It wasn't just a few first-generation disciples like before; it was a force so large it seemed as if the entire sect had mobilized.
“They got here faster than I thought.”
Jinmyeong let out a sigh.
The Kongtong Sect might have been blocking them, but the Mount Hua Sect had caught up to their rear far too quickly.
It meant they had been tailing them all along.
“I told you we'd be seeing each other again soon, didn't I?”
And at the forefront of the Mount Hua group, the Purple Mist Sword, Mae Jinpung, flashed a smug grin at them.
“Tsk. It hasn't even been that long. At this rate, we'll get attached.”
“Haha. Your tongue is as sharp as ever.”
The Purple Mist Sword chuckled at Jinmyeong's dismissive click of the tongue.
But his expression quickly hardened.
“I'll make this brief. We've found evidence that the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult attacked the Yukga Escort Agency and killed disciples of Mount Hua.”
“We never did such a thing. What is this evidence you speak of?”
“The bodies were hacked to pieces and even burned.”
They were so unrecognizable it was hard to tell if they were even our disciples' bodies.
“But you know, don't you? Traces of demonic arts always remain.”
Traces of martial arts were inevitably left on the bodies.
The Nine Great Sects, composed mostly of Taoist and Buddhist schools, were particularly sensitive to demonic energy.
Even if Mount Hua was no longer a Taoist sect, its roots had not vanished entirely.
“Hmph. Anyone can say that.”
Jinmyeong sighed as he looked at the Purple Mist Sword.
“Tsk. You block one attack and suddenly you're acting so arrogant.”
The Purple Mist Sword's expression grew colder as he watched Jinmyeong.
Even if Jinmyeong had blocked his attack, it didn't mean he was a master on the same level as the Purple Mist Sword.
His patience for what he saw as a young warrior's bravado was wearing thin.
“Traces of the Mad Wind Saber Arts were found on the bodies.”
That's absurd.
A master of Shin Yehyang's caliber would have no need to use the Mad Wind Saber Arts to kill the Yukga Escort guards or Mount Hua's second-generation disciples.
And in reality, no such traces were found.
However, they were able to find wounds made by the saber Shin Yehyang carried.
“Are you even listening to yourself? Do you realize what you're saying? Suppose someone from our cult died, and we found traces of Mount Hua on the body.”
“Nonsense.”
“That's what it sounds like to me.”
Bring some concrete evidence that everyone can acknowledge.
The Purple Mist Sword claimed to have evidence, but it was all just his word.
If this were the modern world, the Purple Mist Sword might have backed down at Jinmyeong's words.
But this wasn't the modern world; this was the Murim.
A place where might prevailed over words. A place where power could make truth, even without evidence.
“There's no need for more talk. Attack.”
The Purple Mist Sword, Mae Jinpung, gave up on talking to Jinmyeong.
He felt Jinmyeong was just twisting his words and being obstinate.
“Tsk.”
As Jinmyeong clicked his tongue, five controlled swords were already floating around him.
“So it's come to this.”
Shin Yehyang, who had already drawn her saber, approached.
“I don't think I'll be able to protect you this time, Young Master Jin.”
“Are you joking?”
“Perhaps.”
A faint smile spread across Shin Yehyang's lips.
Jinmyeong stared blankly at her smile.
“What's wrong?”
“No. It's nothing.”
Her smile had already vanished, and Jinmyeong shook his head, looking away.
“Then let's see each other alive. If we're lucky.”
“...Alright.”
Shin Yehyang's voice trembled slightly as she replied.
Even she couldn't help but be nervous in this situation.
‘He's not nervous even in a situation like this.’
In contrast, Jinmyeong still showed no signs of tension.
If anything, he seemed to feel a strange sense of excitement.
‘How will he get out of this crisis?’
Jinmyeong didn't think this situation, surrounded by the Mount Hua and Kongtong sects, was all that serious.
The basis for his confidence, of course, was that this event was never mentioned in the novel.
Even though, on the surface, it clearly looked like a crisis.
“Hyaah!”
“Damn it! Just die!”
“Keuk!”
But contrary to Jinmyeong's thoughts, the situation was utter chaos.
The Kongtong and Mount Hua sects were bearing down on them, and the cult's warriors were moving desperately to avoid being encircled.
Battle cries, curses, and screams began to erupt from all sides.
“Keuk!”
“If we can just get past those swords...”
And the warriors attacking Jinmyeong couldn't get close because of the controlled swords that flew and attacked on their own.
“Haat!”
Jinmyeong snapped his head to the side at the sound of a battle cry.
He saw the smiling face of a Kongtong Sect disciple bringing his sword down on him.
No doubt he couldn't contain his smile at the thought of killing a rising master like the New Demonic Sword Controller.
Puk!
But before his sword could reach Jinmyeong, one of the controlled swords flew in and pierced through his head.
‘Why do they shout so much?’
Of course, one can't help but shout when using their full strength.
But don't those shouts render any surprise attack useless?
‘More importantly, is this right?’
The more Jinmyeong watched people entangled in a desperate struggle, the more he felt this situation wouldn't end easily.
‘Could it be because of me?’
Maybe they didn't clash with Mount Hua in the original story?
He wondered if Jang Hu, unable to contain his anger because of Jinmyeong's actions in Shaanxi, had clashed with the Mount Hua disciples, leading to this situation.
“We meet again at last. I've been waiting for the day I'd see you again.”
It was just as he was starting to feel that this situation might be more serious than he had thought.
A voice filled with fury bored into his ears.