Heavenly Mountain Incident 2
A fortnight had passed. On the day of the Young Leader Contest, Shin Gi-woon left his quarters with the White Fang Spear in hand.
The contest was being held, of all places, on First Peak. The matter had already been decided at the Extreme Heaven Council, so there was nothing to be done about it.
It was like walking straight into enemy territory. But he could no longer intervene — and truthfully, Shin Gi-woon was hoping for exactly that.
Physical evidence of the collusion between the Sword Altar Sect and Cheongung. On First Peak, the odds of finding that evidence went up. The moment it surfaced, Guangming Palace would step in and annihilate the Sword Altar Sect.
Of course, he didn't expect the Sword Altar Sect Master to be soft enough to make it easy. The man would have made his own preparations by now.
This was a fight won by whoever struck first — whoever found the evidence first, or whoever drove the other into a corner first.
The Young Leader Contest was, in essence, a life-and-death duel. Anyone could kill anyone at any time, and no one would be held accountable.
Those who entered received no protection from their backers. Their backers, in turn, were forbidden from meddling. Total isolation.
Every unit under Guangming Palace would be guarding the young talents competing in the contest. The chance of an external assault was effectively zero.
What mattered was what happened on the inside. Simply by entering the Young Leader Contest, Shin Gi-woon steeled himself for a proxy war against Cheongung. Not everyone there would be one of theirs — but at least one of them certainly was.
Dan Jung-ho, son of the Sword Altar Sect Master. Whatever scheme the bastard was cooking up, Shin Gi-woon was confident.
Even if he walked into a formation trap, he would shatter it on the spot. With that resolve burning in his chest, Shin Gi-woon climbed First Peak.
He arrived at a newly constructed building raised specifically for the contest — a structure even more massive than Jamma Cave.
As time passed, the surroundings began to throng with people. That many contenders had come to fight for the title of Young Leader.
How many of these people actually want to become Young Leader, I wonder.
The opportunity was open to anyone. For all its grand appearance, it was a lawless free-for-all — anyone who could prove their identity was free to enter.
Which meant Cheongung agents could slip in under false identities with ease.
Rooting out every Cheongung operative who had spent a lifetime living in the shadows was impossible. Shin Gi-woon resolved to treat everyone who wasn't himself as an enemy.
Eventually the bustling First Peak fell deathly silent. The unit commanders of Guangming Palace had appeared before the platform.
"All eyes forward!"
Ma Jin-cheon stamped his foot and seized every contender's attention at once. Every ear turned toward his mouth.
He swept his gaze roughly across the crowd, then began to pour out his aura in a violent surge.
"I welcome every demonic warrior who has entered the Young Leader Contest. Consider this a greeting. A bit excessive, perhaps?"
A crushing pressure exploded outward.
Among the gathered throng, people dropped to their knees. Others foamed at the mouth and collapsed unconscious. The contest's assistant instructors hauled every one of them away. It was a first-round filter of sorts — a test of whether a contender possessed even the minimum martial power required to become Young Leader.
Ma Jin-cheon sustained the aura for roughly half a ke, and half the participants were carried out. The rabble had been weeded away.
He stepped down from the platform, and Yeom Gyeong-hong took his place.
"Greetings, gentlemen. I am Yeom Gyeong-hong, Commander of the Yama Demon Emperor Corps. Since this is everyone's first Young Leader Contest, we will go over the rules thoroughly before we proceed."
At Yeom Gyeong-hong's glance, Sama Rin unfurled a long scroll packed tight with the contest regulations. Yeom Gyeong-hong began to read.
"First. Killing is permitted in the Young Leader Contest. If the person beside you draws a blade and comes at you, that is your problem. The instructors will not protect you. Second. This is the greatest internal event of our Cult, held to select our Young Leader. All contact with the outside is severed. Anyone who violates this will be punished with death. Third—"
While Yeom Gyeong-hong read through the rules, Shindogun watched the contenders with a sly little grin. Whenever someone in the crowd started grinning along with him, Shindogun pointed them out to an instructor with uncanny precision — and just like that, they were ushered down the path of elimination. Shin Gi-woon hadn't expected him to be stuck with a job like that. Without meaning to, the corner of his mouth twitched upward.
Shindogun's sound transmission arrived at once.
"Trying to get yourself eliminated?"
"Think you can handle the Cult Leader's wrath?"
"You sly bastard."
The reverse threat made Shindogun's brow furrow. Around then, Yeom Gyeong-hong finished explaining the rules.
Sama Rin ignited the scroll with her Samadhi True Fire and burned it in a spectacular blaze. The floor passed naturally back to Ma Jin-cheon.
"You've all heard the rules. We will now begin the first task of the Young Leader Contest. I don't care whose arm it is. Bring me one."
There was no starting signal. Someone simply severed the arm of the person next to them.
"Aaaagh!"
"Y-you insane—!"
"You can't just suddenly— gurk!"
The unlucky lost both arms. Some died outright. Within moments the place had become a slaughterhouse. The instruction had been that any arm would do — so in theory, cutting off your own was fine. But no one stupid enough to do that had entered the contest in the first place.
Shin Gi-woon watched the chaos from above, standing on empty air — the exclusive privilege of an Extreme Demon master: treading the void.
Looking down from the sky, he had never seen a mess quite like it. Blood flew so thickly it looked less like the Demonic Cult and more like the Blood Cult. Free of the scramble himself, he could see the total disaster with perfect clarity. Already some were forming alliances. The weak clustered together; the strong formed their own packs. Those who submitted an arm passed. Everyone else turned to pack-hunting, starting with the weak. The Demonic Cult lived by the law of the strong — he had no intention of interfering with that.
Splitting them apart, though — that was fair game.
A thunderous crack split the air as Shin Gi-woon hurled his spear hard toward the ground. The unfortunate demonic warrior standing directly beneath him was cleaved cleanly in two. At the same stroke, the pack of strong contenders was split down the middle. Shin Gi-woon landed lightly between them, severed an arm from the dead man, and straightened.
Every eye locked onto him. He looked them over and muttered, almost casually,
"Watch the person next to you, you idiots."
The ripple from those words was greater than anyone could have imagined. The strong began eyeing one another with suspicion, and before long the packs dissolved entirely into a free-for-all of mutual slaughter.
Shin Gi-woon left them behind and submitted the arm to Ma Jin-cheon.
"Is this how you're filtering them?"
"By the Cult Leader's order. Kill as many as you can, he said."
They exchanged the words in secret sound transmission. At this rate, the Young Leader Contest was going to produce a record body count. The thought crossed his mind unbidden.
Not long after, the first trial concluded. Only ninety-nine survivors remained.
Of the hundreds who had originally applied, the vast majority were dead. A simple task — bring back an arm — had, through cascading division, degenerated into pure kill-or-be-killed. And yet no one mourned the fallen.
The weak die. The strong live. In the Demonic Cult, that was absolute law.
While a host of instructors cleared away the corpses, a rest period was granted. That was when Shin Gi-woon spotted her.
So-hyang…?
Bi So-hyang was among the instructors. And that wasn't all. Looking more carefully, he picked out Ma Ra-jin and Sama Yul as well.
It was far too blatant. Prepared for a fight to break out, maybe?
Young Leader Contest, my ass. This is the middle of a battlefield that could explode at any second.
Now that he looked, every instructor for the contest was drawn from Guangming Palace. Which meant Guangming Palace itself was currently an empty house.
I never thought he'd use himself as bait.
Even the Great Law Protector had left Guangming Palace. The only fighting force remaining there was Cheon Yu himself.
From Cheongung's perspective, wasn't that an irresistible prize? With so many of his guards away, this was the perfect window to hunt Cheon Yu down.
But who was Cheon Yu? Ranked the strongest even among the Two Stars, One Sovereign, and One Demon — the man considered closest to being the greatest under heaven. To face him, you would need to bring at least two Profound Realm masters.
He wasn't worried. If the Cheongung dogs had any brains at all, they would target the Young Leader Contest instead. Thinning the Cult's overall strength as much as possible was far more profitable for them than killing Cheon Yu alone.
That mind of his never stops turning.
It was a moment that explained perfectly why the current Demonic Cult had no Demon Strategist. When the Cult Leader himself was that sharp, what need was there for a separate military advisor?
The unit commanders under Guangming Palace were no slouches either — quick-witted talents who could step into a strategist's role at any time.
"That concludes the first trial. Disperse for today. As this is the first day, killing is forbidden. Anyone who breaks that rule will answer to me personally. Remember it."
For the duration of the contest, no one would be allowed to leave the grounds. Shin Gi-woon yawned and headed for his assigned quarters.
Meanwhile, at the Martial Alliance—
"Alliance Leader. Intelligence report."
"Intelligence? Has something serious occurred?"
Cheol Hwi-hyun, the current leader of the Martial Alliance, was processing documents in his office when Zhuge Wol, the Alliance's chief strategist, came to report.
"Large-scale movement has been observed from the Sado Alliance."
"Large-scale movement… how large?"
"Including Alliance Lord Nak Cheong-su himself, his entire personal guard — the Hegemon Tiger Corps — is on the move. Additionally, some three thousand martial artists under the Sado Alliance appear to be accompanying them. This is Beggars' Guild intelligence. It is reliable."
"And their destination — the Demonic Cult, by any chance?"
"That is correct."
Cheol Hwi-hyun's face twisted into something monstrous. Only for a moment. Composing his expression, he issued his order to Zhuge Wol.
"Leave them be. If they want to tear each other apart, we have no reason to interfere."
"But the people of Qinghai will be trembling in fear…"
"Strategist. Lord Nak is a Profound Realm master. With both of the Two Stars away from their posts, stopping the Hegemon Lord's advance would require the Alliance to stake its very survival."
Zhuge Wol closed his mouth. There was nothing wrong with what the Alliance Leader had said. Still, he could not quite smother the regret.
Lately he had begun to lose faith that this man was truly fit to lead the Martial Alliance.
"You may withdraw."
"Forgive the intrusion."
Zhuge Wol withdrew in gloomy silence. Not long after he was gone, Cheol Hwi-hyun murmured with evident satisfaction.
"So the First Martial General has moved… It seems he intends to wipe the Demonic Cult from the map entirely while he's at it."
Cheol Hwi-hyun unfurled a map of the Ming Empire and let black ink drip, drop by drop, onto the Heavenly Mountains.
"Heavenly Demon… Ha. To dare call yourself Heavenly Demon while He still sits upon His throne. The time has come to pay for that sin, Cheon Yu."
The Martial Alliance Leader — no.
Cheol Hwi-hyun, First Apostle of Cheongung, smiled a cold and sinister smile.