Chapter 152
Chapter 152
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: Four Sect Sovereigns
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Tianshan.
A black mountain range stretched like a folding screen across the northern frontiers.
A small falcon flew into the barren wasteland where not a single blade of grass grew.
It was the Tianshan Demonic Eagle, classified as a spirit beast even in Tianshan for its intelligence surpassing that of a seven-year-old child.
Flutter!
“Alright, you little rascal. Settle down. I’m just as happy to see you after all this time.”
Heo San-hyeok, Seventh Branch Chief of the Demonic Eagle Hall, scratched the chin of the Tianshan Demonic Eagle as it rubbed its face against his chest and acted coquettish, while untying the message tube bound to its leg.
He dismissed it at first as just another routine report from the spies dispatched to the Central Plains, but his expression hardened upon seeing the seal stamped on the letter.
—Urgent.
It was an express dispatch from the Demonic Horse North Sea Sect, which had set out for Sichuan.
If word had come from there via Tianshan Demonic Eagle?
Heo San-hyeok suppressed the churning sensation in his chest and dashed toward his superior’s location.
* * *
The North Sea Sect’s urgent dispatch swiftly reached the Cult Leader’s Hall.
Beneath the empty throne sat four people around a large table.
Beast Sect Sovereign Mansu Yacha Galdanryong.
Ghost Sect Sovereign Gucheon Salma Deung Saheun.
Dirge Sect Sovereign Evil Heart Blood Buddha Geuk Eojong.
Iron Wall Sect Sovereign Ironclad Demon King Dam Mok Sangryeo.
Four sovereigns from four of the five sects that ruled Tianshan in this era had gathered in one place.
“Kekekekek! I knew it would come to this! Always smirking slyly and acting so superior! And now look at the mess you’re in!”
The Beast Sect Sovereign, seated atop two house-sized great tigers like chairs, filled the Cult Leader’s Hall with his booming laughter at every guffaw.
He wore bizarre garb seemingly pieced together from assorted beast hides, from which a strange stench emanated in waves.
“The Beast Sect Sovereign seems to hate bathing as much as ever. The rotting corpse stench is sharp enough to pierce even my own nose.”
The Ghost Sect Sovereign, dressed neatly in scholar’s robes with his hair tied in a topknot, would have looked like a scholar if not for the white mask covering his face.
“Kekeke. Bathing is an unnatural act in the wild! I merely live as great nature intended.”
“Civilization exists to be enjoyed, not rejected.”
“Do you even know how many animals go extinct each day or how much forest vanishes because of you humans?”
“You speak as if you’re not human yourself.”
“Kekekek! I am human, but merely one cloaked in human skin—a incarnation of great nature. Someday, I’ll slaughter every human in this world, then shed my own human guise.”
“Do as you like. Though you’ll likely die to my dagger first.”
“Kekekekek! If so, that too must be great nature’s will. In great nature, death heralds the birth of new life. There’s no cause for sorrow.”
The Ghost Sect Sovereign turned his gaze toward the Dirge Sect Sovereign and Iron Wall Sect Sovereign, signaling he had no desire to continue the banter.
Those two exuded presences no less intimidating than the Beast or Ghost Sect Sovereigns.
The Dirge Sect Sovereign, who called himself the Maitreya descended to this world and a living Buddha, wore hemp robes and toyed with blood-red prayer beads in one hand.
The Iron Wall Sect Sovereign was fully clad in iron armor, her helmet pulled low, making it hard to discern her face.
But her curvaceous figure made it clear she was a woman.
The four sovereigns differed in attire and temperament according to their sects’ doctrines and pursuits.
But they shared one thing in common.
They left their demonic auras and evil energies unleashed, energies so foul that ordinary folk couldn’t even breathe properly in their presence.
Whoooosh!
Demonic auras and evil energies mingled chaotically, swirling in wild vortices.
They eyed each other’s gaps hungrily.
Ready to exploit any weakness and sever their opponent’s lifeline in an instant.
Though they rode the same ship, they harbored no camaraderie from the start.
There was only one throne behind them, after all.
To claim it, everyone present was a rival.
But today, they might have to pause that rivalry.
One of the five seats at the table stood empty, and this gathering concerned it.
The Ghost Sect Sovereign spoke.
“I’d like to hear what the Dirge Sect Sovereign and Iron Wall Sect Sovereign think of this letter.”
The letter lay on the table.
The one that had arrived at the Demonic Eagle Hall that morning marked urgent.
It contained just a single character.
—Defeat.
The character, scrawled in blood as if in haste, seemed to convey the dire circumstances at the time.
“Amitabha, Amitabha. Life and death are inevitable in this Saha world where this Buddha resides. Though the North Sea Sect Sovereign failed to achieve his aim, he must have returned to his god, the Song Emperor, so there’s no need for grief.”
The Dirge Sect Sovereign half-lidded his eyes as he rolled his prayer beads.
“Still, I worry these ignorant mortals of the Central Plains might misread this Buddha’s grand design and harbor false hopes.”
His roundabout words boiled down to the North Sea Sect’s crushing defeat tarnishing their own prestige.
The Iron Wall Sect Sovereign added in a slender but resolute voice. Her fluent Central Plains tongue carried a faint awkwardness in pronunciation.
“This is a strategic blunder as well. The Central Plains’ morale will surely soar to the heavens, and we’ve handed the Dark Lord’s faction the chance to unite.”
“The Iron Wall Sect Sovereign focuses on how the Wall of Lamentations grows thicker and taller, I presume.”
“Indeed.”
The Iron Wall Sect Sovereign nodded at the Ghost Sect Sovereign’s question.
The Wall of Lamentations.
It referred to the Tang Clan, which had thwarted the Demonic Cult’s Central Plains invasions for centuries.
The Beast Sect Sovereign spoke.
“Kekeke! That wall means nothing—just smash it with brute force! Send me! I’ll feed the Dark Lord’s skull to my children!”
“Restrain yourself, Beast Sect Sovereign. The foe is the Dark Lord—the one who defeated the North Sea Sect Sovereign.”
“Kekekekek! Coward. And you call yourself a ghost? You’re not scared just because the North Sea Sect Sovereign fell, are you?”
Flames blazed in the Ghost Sect Sovereign’s eyes behind the mask.
“Even an ignoramus should watch his tongue. I must judge the situation coolly.”
“Kekeke! If that’s not fear, then what—”
“Since you speak with such confidence, Beast Sect Sovereign, do you truly believe you could defeat the North Sea Sect Sovereign without a scratch?”
The Beast Sect Sovereign fell silent for a moment.
The Ghost Sect Sovereign bellowed.
“I could assassinate the North Sea Sect Sovereign in ten breaths if I wished. He was barely a half-step into the saint realm to begin with. But I’ll say this: doing so unscathed would be no easy feat.”
“……”
“And even here, only someone of the Iron Wall Sect Sovereign’s caliber could manage it… perhaps the War Sect Sovereign among the traitor sects? But the rest? How do you fare?”
The Iron Wall and War Sect Sovereigns had long been hailed as the strongest among the nine sovereigns.
“And the Central Plains holds nine more powerhouses rivaling the Dark Lord. We must capture them all, yet we’ve botched the first step…!”
A long silence fell.
The Ghost Sect Sovereign’s voice returned to its usual calm.
“Fortunately, the traitor sects, led by the Sword Demon War Sect, have vanished to the distant western Pamir Plateau, granting us some relief—but we can’t rest easy.”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“We must all remember this: if things continue, everything in Tianshan could truly fall to ‘them.’”
The moment ‘them’ was mentioned, not just the Ghost Sect Sovereign but the other sovereigns’ eyes twitched.
There existed beings even these four great demons, who drenched the Central Plains in terror, feared.
The Assembly.
Among them, the face of the Sixth Apostle Yeomgye, who resided beyond Tianshan in the Great Might Mountains, came to mind.
Deep shadows.
Sunset dyed blood-red.
Reverse Taiji demonic eyes gleaming in those twin orbs…
Facing them always made the sovereigns feel endlessly diminished.
A reverence they felt only before the gods they served.
Yeomgye could seize the Divine Cult at any moment.
No—he already had, in effect.
His lack of deeper involvement stemmed only from disinterest in worldly affairs.
But if they kept fumbling like the North Sea Sect Sovereign, he would surely extend his claws.
Then, everyone here would be doomed.
The cult leader’s throne they dreamed of would vanish entirely.
“Fortunately, my sect has forged good ties with the South Palace Clan, so centered on Joint Blessing Mountain—”
As the Ghost Sect Sovereign continued.
“!!”
“!!”
“!!”
Suddenly, all three sovereigns’ gazes shot skyward.
They hastily shoved their chairs back and dropped one knee to the floor.
The Ghost Sect Sovereign prostrated himself likewise, bowing his head.
Cold sweat trickled from beneath his deeply pulled mask.
Drip!
Where his sweat fell.
Shadows rippled across the floor, swiftly blanketing the entire Cult Leader’s Hall in darkness.
Before they knew it, the four sovereigns were left isolated in the black void.
Gone were their clashing demonic auras and evil energies—replaced by the presence of one being alone.
It felt as if a giant loomed before them, peering down.
Ssssh!
Then, shadows above their heads swirled into a reverse Taiji pattern.
Demonic eyes glared straight at the four sovereigns.
“We see the Sixth Apostle!”
“We see the Sixth Apostle!”
“We see the Sixth Apostle!”
“We see the Sixth Apostle!”
A deference they never showed even when the Divine Sword Heavenly Demon sat upon the throne.
Overwhelming terror gripped their lungs.
『Someone… knows… my… name.』
The Ghost Sect Sovereign raised his head.
“Did the North Sea Sect Sovereign… recklessly utter the Apostle’s true name?”
『Indeed.』
“!”
The four sovereigns were stunned.
The Sixth Apostle was a god.
A god’s name was the root of faith.
The more knew the name, the greater the god’s power grew proportionally; the deeper the faith, the profounder the power.
Thus, the Sixth Apostle had revealed his name to the sovereigns.
The deeper their fear before it, the vaster his divine power swelled—and the tighter they were bound beneath it.
But to outsiders, he revealed his existence without his name.
For none could dare place their own name above the Blood God they served.
Paradoxical, yet that was the Assembly’s doctrine.
Yet Yeomgye had learned someone beyond them knew his name.
A new faith had entered where the North Sea Sect Sovereign vanished.
Unlike the four sovereigns, it brimmed with enmity.
“Then the Dark Lord knows of the Apostle’s—”
『No. Not him.』
Doubt seeded in the four sovereigns’ minds.
The one who slew the North Sea Sect Sovereign was the Dark Lord—yet his true name had flowed elsewhere?
“C-Could it mean some other entity intervened in this affair besides the Dark Lord—?”
『That’s for you… to find out. Isn’t that… why I granted you… these seats?』
“……”
『But if… the Divine Sword Heavenly Demon… truly lives… that would be… amusing in its own right.』
The Sixth Apostle laughed.
The four sovereigns’ faces stiffened.
They too knew of the possible link between the Seventh Apostle’s disappearance and the Divine Sword Heavenly Demon.
Had not the Ghost Sect even dispatched agents directly to Gansu?
But if true… it became an issue they couldn’t overlook.
It meant the Divine Sword Heavenly Demon had not only grown strong enough to vanquish the Seventh Apostle but had intervened in the Nine Dragons Great Battle to learn even the Sixth Apostle’s true name.
No one knew how he might act, rallying the Demonic Transformation Divine Sect with Homaui.
Catastrophe could follow.
『Perhaps that fleeting gaze I sensed then… belonged to the Divine Sword Heavenly Demon—』
Murmuring inscrutably, the Sixth Apostle closed his eyes again.
The blackened Cult Leader’s Hall returned to normal.
Hah!
Only then could the four sovereigns release their tension and exhale deeply.
But their robes were soaked with cold sweat.
“…If the cult leader truly lives and intervened as the Apostle implied, I must act personally.”
The Ghost Sect Sovereign read the warning in the Sixth Apostle’s words. Thrones be damned— their lives hung in the balance.
“The Iron Wall Sect will redirect the Black Flag Corps and Iron Horse Corps toward the Gobi Desert.”
“My thanks.”
The Ghost Sect Sovereign gave a slight bow to the Iron Wall Sect Sovereign.
The Beast and Dirge Sect Sovereigns added they would lend strength to the investigation.
Then, the Dirge Sect Sovereign seemed to recall something belatedly and asked.
“Amitabha, Avalokiteshvara. Come to think of it, doesn’t the North Sea Sect Sovereign have a son left behind? I heard he appointed him acting sovereign before departing and entered secluded cultivation. Why not bring him along? Surely the young sovereign burns to avenge his father.”
Phrased as consideration, it meant using the Demonic Horse North Sea Sect—which sparked this disaster—as a scapegoat.
What power did a sect without its sovereign hold?
This chance could strip them bare, ensuring they’d never eye the throne again.
Afterward?
The remaining four sects could amicably divide the spoils.
In a place where the weak were devoured.
That was the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
“Indeed.”
The Ghost Sect Sovereign nodded, his icy gaze directed somewhere.
Reincarnation Demon God Hall