A Sudden Descent into the Demonic Cult
...Heavenly Demon Divine Cult?
The unexpected words blanked my mind white.
Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The lair of demons that ruled the entire Central Plains with terror, even though it had remained behind closed gates for more than half a century.
This cult of fanatics was also called the demonic cult, and throughout the long history of the jianghu, it had never once escaped its reputation as the worst force in the world of demons.
There were even horrifying rumors circulating in the world that they cried out for the Heavenly Demon’s return and did not hesitate to offer human sacrifice……
And yet what?
The Third Young Master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult?
Had I become not just an ordinary demon, but a demon of excellent bloodline?
What the hell is this nonsense?
However much the world might change, there were limits.
This is too much……
I was a monk who had stood out from the start in Shaolin, where countless prodigies from all over the world came knocking at least once, and had earned the title Divine Fist.
Right, a monk.
Even if I had focused on martial arts, I was still, in name, a Buddhist monk.
How many sentient beings had I saved, how many fiends had I punished—what sin had I committed that I’d be reincarnated in a place like this……?
“Ah!”
Then one thought struck my mind like lightning.
The possibility that I had made a mistake, the way a monkey might fall from a tree.
It was only a possibility, but……
Wasn’t it a common saying that the higher one’s cultivation, the more likely one was to blunder in the most basic matters?
That’s it!
The suspicion quickly hardened into certainty.
At the moment I thought I had entered nirvana, I must have been carried away by excitement and fallen prey to inner demons.
I was surely dreaming an nightmare on the border between this world and paradise!
“Kaaah!!”
“Y-yes……?”
“...Young Master?”
But all I could still see was the high ceiling above me, and nothing else changed.
This can’t be happening……
This is a dream, right?
It has to be a dream.
“Gaaaal!!”
“Do you mean for us to leave? We just need to check your condition for a moment…….”
Smack!
I swung my own hand across my face with all the strength I had.
“Kyaaah!”
It hurt.
It hurt so much it was unbelievable.
It had been struck by nothing more than my own skeletal hand, and yet the pain was vicious enough to make my eyes water.
“P-please calm down! What are you doing? At least let the physician check you!”
“Ah, yes!”
The physician hurriedly spoke to me.
“I’ll examine your body.”
...
The throbbing pain in my cheek and the stinging sensation in my palm were so vivid that they seemed to force me to accept reality once and for all.
Damn it, how could something this irreverent happen……?
For a moment I thought I heard the old monks’ nagging voices about not accumulating verbal karma, but there was nothing to be done.
The shock of the situation I faced after reincarnation was so severe I felt as if my mind might fly apart.
I even felt my steadfast discipline beginning to crack, and my mouth opened almost by habit.
“Amita…….”
“Y-young Master!”
The physician cut me off in a hurry.
“It is urgent that you recover your composure, of course, but... ahem, I’ll finish taking your pulse soon, so could you wait just a moment?”
Had he made that same expression when he first learned I was the Third Young Master of the demonic cult? Not only the physician, but even the woman’s eyes were shaking wildly, as though an earthquake had struck them.
...Right. No point chanting the Buddha’s name among a bunch of demons.
A short while later, after finishing the pulse examination, the physician said, “To summarize, your vital energy and blood channels are twisted, and your true qi has suffered damage.”
“...?”
“Your muscles and tendons have also stiffened considerably, so movement will be restricted, but fortunately it is not to the point of endangering your life. If you focus on recovery, you should improve in about five years.”
“Recovery? Five years?”
The sudden words made my head ache.
Every time I leaned my body even slightly, nausea rolled through my stomach and I felt like vomiting, and the feeble strength in my limbs—was that not from confronting this cursed reality, but from internal injuries?
“Yes. First, we should tend to the twelve meridians so your blood can circulate properly. After I’ve applied acupuncture, I’ll prepare a medicinal decoction to strengthen your acupoints.”
...
What sin had I committed in my previous life to deserve suffering like this?
“Heh... heh heh heh.”
A laugh escaped me at the sheer absurdity of it all.
“May I begin the acupuncture now?”
“...Go ahead.”
The physician flinched and bowed deeply.
“If you don’t mind my saying so, I’m uncomfortable accepting such polite speech. I’d be more at ease if you spoke down to me.”
“...Just do it.”
Even in this state of mental fog, I couldn’t ignore another person’s discomfort. That was the kind of Buddhist I was. So why had I ended up falling into the demonic cult?
What kind of karma had I accumulated?
“Then I’ll begin.”
The physician took several thin silver needles from a wooden case and began to insert them into various points all over my body.
A prickling pain followed by a refreshing sensation, like a blocked dam finally being broken, rushed through me, but I had no leisure to pay attention to it because of the questions circling in my head.
Haa, ridiculous.
By now, I wasn’t even sorry that I hadn’t entered nirvana.
I was just furious that I’d fallen into the demonic cult.
If I had not turned my back on the scriptures I once dismissed as old-fashioned, would things have turned out differently?
If I had not neglected the Buddha’s law under the excuse of training in martial arts……
Hye Gwang, the Buddha’s law is profound and vast beyond all comprehension. Only by accumulating merit tirelessly through repeated cycles of reincarnation can you escape that karma and truly be said to have become a Buddha. Just because you’ve attained enlightenment now, does that really mean it is genuine... are you even listening to me?
Suddenly, the old nagging voice of the abbot senior brother came back to me.
So, in the end, even my understanding was insufficient.
Since mulling it over wouldn’t solve anything, I decided to set the question aside altogether.
In any case, I had to accept the situation with equanimity.
The Third Young Master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, with this wretched body—now that was me.
Even so, the fact that I was Hye Gwang would not change.
Had my discipline been so shallow that it would collapse before such suffering?
No.
There were grievances, certainly…… but no, it was not.
Yes, let’s not forget my purpose.
I was a Buddhist who always reaffirmed the positive and valued a peaceful mind above all else in the world.
Merely changing bodies could not change my essence.
Right!
I steadied my confusion and carved my resolve deep into myself.
Buddhist law could be cultivated again—whether I returned to Shaolin or forged my own path of the Buddha, it was something I could work on later.
To do that, I need to get out of here first…….
Since I’d become the Third Young Master of the demonic cult, this had to be the Hundred Thousand Mountains, the lair of demons.
This was where the devils who had once obstructed the Buddha’s cultivation with every kind of trick had gathered; there was no way normal practice could be possible here.
I glanced down at myself and let out a hollow laugh.
What’s this?
Needles were stuck all over my body like the spines of a hedgehog.
“Is it normally this many?”
The physician hesitated before answering. “...This acupuncture is excellent for expelling impurities from the acupoints, so it’s often done this way.”
In other words, my body was such a mess there were plenty of places to treat.
“If it’s uncomfortable, shall we delay the rest for now?”
“No. I’m the one with the damned body; I’ll endure it. Keep going.”
“As expected, you’ve been under quite a bit of strain.”
The weak body itself wasn’t really the problem.
I was full of the Shaolin martial arts in my head, each one miraculous in how it could strengthen stiffened muscles and bones.
The real problem was, of course, that this was the demonic cult.
From the brief look I’d given the woman and the physician, there didn’t seem to be much difference between people from the Central Plains and the demonic folk, but there had to be a reason they were called the demonic cult.
What would happen if they found out I wasn’t really the Third Young Master?
Gulp.
In an instant, gooseflesh rose on my arms.
I might be offered as a human sacrifice. I should at least learn some basic information first.
After considering who to ask, I looked at the physician.
“...”
Tap-tap-tap!
Apparently thinking I was hinting that the acupuncture had gone on too long, he withdrew the needles with the deft hands of a martial artist.
“Whew. You’ve endured well, Young Master. I’ll prepare your medicinal decoction now, so please rest for a while.”
“Thank you.”
“P-pardon? Th-thank me? I’m not worthy. I’m only sorry I was too ill-prepared when I came in such a hurry...... I’ll take this as a lesson to refine my practice even more.”
The way he bowed, embarrassed, made his sincerity obvious.
Was the Third Young Master’s status in the demonic cult really that high?
“Then I’ll withdraw for a moment.”
After the physician opened the door and left, the woman bowed with great respect and asked me, “How are you feeling, Young Master? Is there anything you need?”
“I’m fine. You look shocked too, Miss, so you should probably go and rest—mm?”
As though she had heard something truly shocking, the woman’s face stiffened.
What now...?
Thud!
Then she suddenly prostrated herself and cried, “I’m sorry, Young Master! I am far too lacking to serve one of Heaven’s children. No matter how hard I think with my lowly head, nothing comes to mind, so please tell me what mistake I’ve made!”
“Mistake?”
“...Yes.”
She looked thoroughly shriveled, as if she had done something wrong.
“Could it be because of how I’m speaking?”
“Yes. Until now you’ve spoken casually to me, your attendant, so I thought there must be some reason you suddenly changed your manner......”
I waved my hands in a hurry.
“N-no need for that. There’s no special reason; my head just hurts and I got mixed up for a moment. Ha ha, right, I got mixed up.”
“Ah... I see. Since you’ve been lying down for so long, that would certainly happen, and I think I was too flustered to understand. I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to apologize for. No need for that, so first drink some water.”
I handed her the bowl resting on the bedside table.
“Thank you. If I may be so bold...... earlier, your condition looked extremely grave, Young Master.”
“Mm, that would make sense.”
Just like me, who had fallen into a demon’s den, she must have been bewildered too.
The person she had been serving suddenly sat up and started shouting, then slapped his own face.
...And chanting Buddhist scripture.
The woman gave a gentle smile.
“They say that if your qi and blood are twisted, it can affect the brain, so perhaps that’s why you had a headache. I don’t think you need to worry too much.”
“Right. That does seem likely.”
Her eyes were full of concern and worry.
“And your body will recover soon, so there’s no need to fret.”
Her eyes shone as she replied, “That’s such a relief. You may have only just seen him, but the physician who left a moment ago is quite famous for his skill. I’m sure he’ll be able to help.”
“Mm, but how should I put this......”
“Please speak comfortably.”
“There’s something I need to sort out before my body recovers.”
“Something?”
Since asking a friendly person about the Third Young Master was obviously the best course, I decided to reveal only part of the truth to this woman.
“My head feels fogged over, like mist has settled in it, and most of my memories seem to have vanished. Not only you, but many things about myself aren’t coming back to me. It’d be nice if they returned during recovery, but I can’t promise anything.”
“Yo-your memory......?”
The woman swallowed hard before continuing.
“It’s all right, Young Master. I’m sure you’ll recover. Then do you also not remember my name?”
“That’s right.”
“My name is Yeon Hong.”
“Then what’s my name?”
I’d heard it from the physician earlier, but because I was still so confused, I asked just to confirm it.
“Young Master Cheon Sohyeon, the third bloodline of the noble Cheon family.”
If he was a bloodline of the Cheon family, did that mean he was the cult leader’s son?
Well, well. The demonic cult leader is my father?
As I swallowed a self-mocking laugh, another question suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Ah! What year is it by the martial calendar?”
I’d asked to figure out how much time had passed since I’d entered seclusion, but the answer that came back was completely unexpected.
“It has been exactly thirty years. Young Master, you were unconscious for about half a year.”
“Wh-what? Thirty years?!”
I had definitely begun my training when it was over four hundred years.
Not only had I fallen into the demonic cult, I had gone backward in time too?
More than three hundred years?
“Yes. It has already been thirty years since the Nine Heavenly Demons passed away.”
Th-this is insane!
Had the demons been counting the martial calendar from the day the Heavenly Demon died?!
It made sense, all things considered, but because the demonic cult kept itself sealed away in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, I had never known.
“Ah, I see. But...... in the Central Plains, wasn’t it counted a little differently?”
“Pardon? The Central Plains? If you mean their martial calendar, I’m sure it should be a little over four hundred years now, but why would you ask about that......?”
Yeon Hong asked cautiously, her tone laced with concern.
“Shall I call the physician back?”
“Could you? Ha ha, why did that suddenly come to mind? My head feels a little dizzy.”
“I’ll bring him right away. Please wait a moment.”
After Yeon Hong left, I let out a deep sigh.
So they really are using their own calendar.
In any case, that meant it wasn’t so different from when I’d entered seclusion……
I shook my head vigorously and gathered my breathing.
For now, let’s fix my body first and think later.
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