Those Left Behind [2]
—Wooooong.
At the northernmost outer fringe of the Ten Thousand Mountains lay a range known as the Demon-Hardened Snowscape. In winter it vanished beneath knee-deep snow and killing cold; in summer a desiccating heat so fierce that nothing living could endure it. The place was a death zone of sheer, knife-cut cliffs. The air was thin, and demonic energy saturated the earth so densely that even breathing became a struggle. That pure concentration wore down the minds and bodies of demonic practitioners who had trained in demonic arts if they lingered too long. Save for a handful of apex predators, beasts were almost nonexistent, making food scarce. For all these reasons, even the demonic practitioners who had made their homes in the Ten Thousand Mountains never approached this place.
And there, a cave waited. Footprints of a single man led into it. From the mouth of that cave a vast tide of demonic energy spilled outward, blanketing the ground. In the sparse nearby woods the few remaining beasts felt the pull of the energy leaking from the cave and drew closer, eyes clouded and steeped to the bone in demonic corruption. Yet every one of them kept a careful distance, glancing again and again toward the entrance. Not a single creature dared approach any nearer.
“Will he truly be all right?”
A dozen or so demonic practitioners milled and muttered before the cave mouth. Their faded, torn martial robes still bore the embroidered characters of the Surayeomrang Squad. They looked at one another as they spoke.
“It worries me. He went in with neither food nor water.”
“Even for a master of his caliber, to go without water… I simply cannot understand it.”
They kept casting anxious glances at the cave.
“He’s stubborn beyond measure. He told us that if anyone entered before he came out of his own will, he would tear them apart on the spot…”
“Then how long are we supposed to wait? The cult leader’s son has completely disbanded the Surayeomrang Squad. We have nowhere left to return to.”
The man at their head let the words trail off, worry plain on his face.
“All we can do is trust and wait. You all know him. When he sets his mind to something, he sees it through.”
At the end of their gazes, a single lonely line of footprints crossed the dry earth of the cave mouth. They kept a schedule, coming and going. Even elite demonic practitioners could not remain long in the Demon-Hardened Snowscape. Once a day they returned to the entrance, checked for any sign of change, and withdrew again.
Two days passed. Three days. A full month. Moisture beaded at the cave mouth and dripped. The watchers returned on their regular rounds and searched the surroundings, yet nothing had changed. Only the footprints that had gone in remained.
“He hasn’t… died, has he?”
One of the subordinates muttered anxiously.
“Doesn’t seem so, thankfully.”
Another pointed toward the entrance.
“Kh… uuh… uuuuh…”
From the unfathomable depths of the cave came a sound like the groan of a malevolent spirit.
“Ah.”
The one who had voiced the fear let out a short breath of relief.
“Honestly, even though he’s the one I serve, it still sends a chill through me. What kind of existence could drive him to this extreme…”
“How would I know? Let’s come again next time. He’s alive, at least. We just have to believe and wait.”
They left the cave once more. In the place they vacated, the intermittent, distant groans continued to rise from the deep underground, carried on the damp air.
The sun rose. The sun set. Autumn’s colors deepened. Day and night temperature swings painted the Ten Thousand Mountains in brilliant maple leaves, even that place of perpetual yin energy blooming with the same five-colored foliage.
—Thud.
And after ninety days, a man walked out.
“Huu…”
It was a long, deep breath. From the very bottom of his lungs he expelled the foul air as he emerged. The martial robes of the Surayeomrang Squad of the Heavenly Demon Cult that he wore were tattered and worn through. They reeked of sticky waste. With every step the cloth itself crumbled away.
“Lord Yeomrangwang…”
“Lord Jeokmaryeong.”
The waiting subordinates reddened at the eyes and dropped to their knees one by one.
“It’s bright.”
“We congratulate you on your safe return.”
“Our deepest congratulations.”
Jeokmaryeong narrowed his eyes against the light and slowly took in everything around him. The subordinates produced the things they had kept carefully in their robes for this very day that they had always known would come.
“Lord Jeokmaryeong. Here.”
One of them drew out a white, featureless mask. Its surface was pure white, with only two round hollows for the eyes. Jeokmaryeong spoke.
“Yes. I clawed my way through all of this just so I could wear this mask again. So I could return to my true self. So I could return as a demonic practitioner.”
He took the mask from his subordinate’s hands.
—Press.
He fitted it firmly over his face. From the round eye holes a violet radiance burst forth like a flood.
—Thud…
The subordinate kneeling at the very front kept his head bowed and asked respectfully,
“Lord Jeokmaryeong, did you achieve the goal you sought?”
“Hmph.”
A low voice came from behind the mask.
“Even though that shaman who received the divine possession dyed it thoroughly with demonic energy, the pearl still violently rejected me because I was not its original master. Forcing it down and making it settle… I nearly died three times, I think.”
“Then…”
“Even after absorbing it there were problems. No one had ever told me how to use the thing. I even regretted it a little—wondered if I was doing something pointless.”
The subordinates lifted their heads one by one, worry in their eyes. Beneath the mask Jeokmaryeong’s lips curved upward.
“But once I overcame all of that…”
—Clench.
He closed his fist. Dense violet smoke rose from it.
“I finally understood why everyone goes on about pearls. It feels excellent. Completely different efficiency from piling internal energy into some intangible dantian scrap. No one was going to teach me, so I had to find my own method of applying the pearl. It took some work.”
He drew a deep, satisfied breath and let it out.
“But then again, I am the greatest genius and elite of the Heavenly Demon Cult. Of course I could do it.”
“…!”
The subordinates slammed their foreheads to the ground as one.
“We congratulate you on achieving the great cause!”
“Does this mean that the Guardian, whose line had been cut off even in our Heavenly Demon Cult, is finally being revived…?!”
A few of them were so overcome that their voices broke with emotion. Jeokmaryeong answered the cheers coldly.
“No. That is not it.”
“What…?”
He spoke evenly.
“I said it is not.”
A subordinate looked up at him in confusion.
“…Did you not succeed in absorbing the pearl? Even before the absorption, with only a half-pearl the Guardian of the Sichuan Tang Family was something Lord Jeokmaryeong could tear apart. Now that you have fully absorbed one, it must have given your martial arts even greater wings. If you were to call yourself a Guardian, no one could object.”
“It is not that simple.”
Jeokmaryeong clicked his tongue at an unpleasant memory.
“I have always dreamed of only one thing. Nothing else interested me. Even the cult leader’s seat? I cared nothing for that. From childhood there has been only one dream.”
Blazing violet flames began to pour from his body.
“The legendary Guardian of our Heavenly Demon Cult in its absolute prime—the one even the orthodox trash of the Nine Sects and One Gang never dared look upon, the one no one could challenge even at their height. The only demonic practitioner among our ancestors whom I acknowledge as having truly realized sole supremacy under heaven and earth.”
The demonic beasts that had been peeking from the forest tucked their tails and sank to the ground. Some wet themselves.
“Kh…!”
“Keuk!”
One after another the subordinates struggled to breathe and pressed their faces into the dirt as if crushed.
—Kuuuuung…!
A colossal pressure descended as though the sky itself were bearing down. Scarlet maple leaves began to fall in showers. They swirled slowly around Jeokmaryeong and rose toward the heavens.
A subordinate cried out in disbelief.
“He… he hasn’t even used Heaven and Earth Great Shift…! This power…!”
—Snap.
Every current halted at once. The world fell deathly silent, as if crushed flat. In that stillness Jeokmaryeong murmured, violet light blazing from his eyes.
“The Great Heavenly Demon Emperor. Also known by the title of the First Heavenly Demon. I alone am His successor. I am the true lineage, the only one with the right, and no one else can exist. I. I myself…!”
He clenched his fist.
“I am the sole worthy one who can restore the name of Heavenly Demon, a name now dirtied by every dog and cow in the present martial world.”
“Lord Jeokmaryeong…?”
“But then… then, you see.”
Blood-tinged rage mixed into his voice.
“There was a bastard who dared to claim the name of Heavenly Demon. At first I thought he was a worm…”
Sparks flew in his eyes.
“He insulted me, he shamed me, and at the end he even raised demonic energy and surpassed me for a moment… And on top of that.”
Jeokmaryeong spoke in a low voice.
“He invoked the Heavenly Demon. Right in front of me.”
“…Lord Jeokmaryeong, there is no need to take it so much to heart. As you know, even the cult leader and others in the present martial world who have no right to the title still call themselves Heavenly Demon, and their prestige is…”
“If it had been anyone else I would not even have snorted.”
He cut the man off coldly.
“If it had been anyone else I would not have cared…”
He murmured. In his mind rose the image of a man scattering black flames that held a white core, accompanied by black thunder. That man’s eyes had been filled with an unbreakable conviction.
—Tremble…
Jeokmaryeong’s tightly clenched fist shook.
“The problem is that it was him. That it was him… of all people, that he said those words, so I cannot ignore it…”
He laughed coldly.
“Isn’t it amusing?”
He looked at his subordinates and swept his hair back.
“One side a demoted demonic practitioner of the Heavenly Demon Cult, the other a third-rate orthodox scrap. The two of them become mortal enemies over who is closer to the true lineage of the Great Heavenly Demon Emperor—a seat already forgotten by history. And their personalities are both equally dog-like. Kuhk. There could be nothing more foul. That bastard probably feels the same when he looks at me.”
Jeokmaryeong walked forward. He snatched the martial robe his subordinates had prepared. It was pure black. No affiliation embroidered on it. No name. No pattern of any kind.
“I no longer need the title of Yeomrangwang. The Heavenly Demon Cult is none of my concern. To become the true Guardian of all demonic practitioners, and to stand alone under heaven and earth…”
He tightened his belt.
“I will kill that bastard first. That one alone I will kill without fail. That one alone I will surpass without fail. For that single goal I clenched my teeth and endured more than ninety days of hellish agony while forcing the pearl into my bare body.”
Jeokmaryeong looked up at the clear autumn sky.
“Somewhere under that sky he is probably sharpening his blade as well. I know you. You hate fighting like a dog, but that is exactly why you are a true martial artist as mad as I am.”
Through the round eye holes of the blank white mask, Jeokmaryeong’s blazing eyes shone.
“Isn’t that right? Moyong Bi.”