The Heavenly Demon Cult Serial Murder Case: The Night of Murder Without a Culprit
The cook at the Palace of Joyful Harmony had apparently decided that fried rice should come with soup. To Cheong’s common sense, fried rice meant rice that had been fried. Therefore, fried rice should not have broth in it. Yet the cook clearly disagreed. Cheong, who took her rice very seriously, flew into a rage.
No way… How the hell is this dog food supposed to be fried rice? This dish should not exist in the world! Something this horrifying needs to be wiped off the face of the earth.
So Cheong did exactly that. She put in as much effort as humanly possible to erase it from existence.
“Samae!? How, how could you possibly eat five whole bowls of that? Are you sure it’s not your tongue that’s the problem, not your leg?”
Gyeon Po-hui stared at Cheong with wide, shocked eyes. Cheong’s face twisted into a long-suffering expression.
“It’s because Saje grew up without any real hardship. After going through enough crap, you realize this isn’t even remotely ‘sweet fried rice.’ It’s just disgustingly bland…”
Cheong had, in fact, devoured all five bowls.
“This is seriously too much. Making someone feel bad over food…”
Cheong’s face crumpled like she was about to cry. She had accumulated quite a lot of resentment when it came to rice. Seeing that look, Gyeon Po-hui spoke up.
“Cheer up! Oh! Samae, should we go out for dinner!?”
What the—? Why does it suddenly feel like a halo is shining behind her?
Cheong’s face brightened instantly.
“Really? Is that okay?”
“Starting from the fifth disciple of the Second Hall, we’re allowed to eat outside.”
Gyeon Po-hui had caught the picky eater and become the fifth disciple of the Second Hall.
“But Saje, don’t you have no money?”
Yesterday, while out on reconnaissance, she had thought about grabbing a snack. But after losing both the Wolgwang-geom (Model 8) and the Boksinjeok, Cheong was completely broke. Unfortunately, Gyeon Po-hui was in the same boat. So the two of them had simply sucked on their fingers with sad eyes.
Did she suddenly come into money today?
Gyeon Po-hui answered brightly.
“We can just earn it during afternoon training, right?”
Cheong tilted her head.
“You get paid for training? What? Why haven’t I received anything like that?”
“Ah. Since Samae is from the Central Plains, you probably wouldn’t know. Our Palace of Joyful Harmony lets you earn pocket money while training! That’s actually why I joined!”
“Wait, the Palace of Joyful Harmony has such a progressive system?”
The way the Palace of Joyful Harmony operated was an absolute mess. Was this the reason the disciples managed to endure it?
Cheong recalled her own miserable life of hardship. If she had known she could get paid for training, she should have already become a rich woman and then some.
“Samae has huge breasts and a pretty face, so if you hang up a red lantern, customers will swarm in! Men pretend they don’t, but they all love big ones.”
Cheong blinked. She felt like she had just heard something very strange. Huge breasts, beauty, red lantern, customers, popularity, men. When you put all those words together, it sounded exactly like…
“Hold on. Could you stop right there? I’m getting a really bad feeling. I don’t think I should hear any more.”
“Well, Samae is a high-level expert! Taking just a little bit of vital energy probably doesn’t satisfy you, right? If you wanted, you could just grab men and suck them dry. I’m so jealous…”
Cheong had asked her to stop, but she had spilled everything anyway. Come to think of it, she had heard something like that before. That if you worked hard to lure a man, the saje would all steal him. So that’s what it meant.
Well, she had already seen women being devoured. The demonstration had been extremely vivid. If they could eat women, surely they could eat men too?
Cheong swallowed hard and asked.
“Can I watch the training from the side?”
“No. Surprisingly, a lot of them are shy. If you watch, the customers won’t come.”
Ah. That doesn’t work…
Cheong changed direction.
“Then, if I catch a guy and bring him to you, can I watch you finish him off from the side?”
“Eh!? Really!? I’d love that! Hehe…”
Whoa, front-row reservation! VIP seat for a private performance!
Cheong thought with rising excitement. Should I pop some popcorn in advance? Sipping cool Dragon Well tea while watching… Damn, that sounds amazing!
I should ask Seolgajik about it tonight. Tell him to recommend some bad guys with good stamina.
At first she had thought Seolgajik was a weird name, but it actually rolled off the tongue nicely. It even felt strangely friendly. Maybe it was actually an excellent name? His cold reason and insight were practically at the Tal-ma level. Even though he was technically one of the Demonic Cult’s people, he wasn’t really a cultist.
Yeah. She should ask him what martial art he would learn if he could pick one. It would also help her prepare for the next two thousand point exchange. It was better to gather multiple opinions before deciding.
Cheong looked up at the face of Support Stand No. 2, who was carrying her in his arms back to her room.
Hmm. No need to ask this guy.
“Samae! Then rest well!”
Support Stand No. 2 set Cheong down on the bed, waved cheerfully, and left for training.
Lying in bed, Cheong thought, Now what?
Should I train? But I’m so full…
Cheong gently stroked her bloated, round belly. Come to think of it, if she was going out at night, she should get some sleep now. It would be bad if she got tired and sleepy and made a mistake. So she had to force herself to sleep right now.
“Hwaaaaa…”
Cheong let out a long yawn and closed her eyes. There was a special happiness in lying down with a full stomach. She had to lie on her left side. Lying on the right made her stomach uncomfortable. So she lay comfortably, letting all the strength drain from her body as her mind grew drowsy…
-BANG BANG BANG!
Damn it, who’s knocking on the door in the middle of the night (it’s not night yet) with zero manners?
-BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Seomun Cheong! I don’t know her. Seomun Cheong is sleeping. Come back later.
-BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Seomun Cheong! I know you’re inside!
“Ugh, seriously.”
Cheong bolted upright.
“It’s not locked, so just come in!”
The door opened and a stranger stepped inside. She was a gaunt middle-aged woman who looked exactly like the dormitory supervisor from old literary novels. Even though her face was thin, it was so full of spite it seemed ready to overflow. A single maid followed behind her.
The woman looked at Cheong and immediately clicked her tongue.
“Tsk tsk. A girl lying down right after eating lunch. Didn’t your parents tell you that you’ll turn into a cow?”
“Are you insulting cows right now? Cows are our allies.”
“Well. Looking at those vulgar udders, you’ve already become a heifer. How could His Supremacy possibly…”
Cheong frowned.
Why do these people keep talking shit about someone else’s breasts? Does anyone actually like them? They’re heavy, they get sweaty, you can’t see below them, they get in the way when swinging a sword, they hurt no matter which way you lie—left, right, forward—and if you spill anything it gets all over the front… There’s literally not a single advantage.
“What is it? Did you come here to pick a fight? Want to go?”
Cheong raised her fist. The woman shook her head.
“I am the teacher who will instruct you in etiquette and music from now on. Call me Madam Kang. People of the Central Plains called this humble musician the Heavenly Rival Beauty.”
“……? Beauty? Not witch?”
Madam Kang’s face twisted. But Cheong remained proud. If you didn’t want to be cursed at, you shouldn’t have piled up bad karma.
“How dare you! Will you not show proper respect to your teacher?”
“Teacher? I didn’t even sign up for classes? Suddenly?”
“Here. Take this first.”
At Madam Kang’s gesture, the maid approached with a large bundle and placed it on the bed. When Cheong unwrapped the cloth, neatly stacked books were revealed.
“What is this? Book delivery?”
“There are nine martial arts you must learn, and one is a sheet music book. You may learn the martial arts on your own. This humble one will teach you etiquette and music.”
It was a whole pile of Fairy Art bestowed by His Supremacy Hosoin. Of course, the martial arts themselves were innocent.
Cheong’s face brightened.
“Martial arts? Oh, all of these.”
Cheong quickly skimmed through the martial arts books. Upon checking, eight techniques had been registered. One volume must be a trap. Well, whatever. They were free anyway.
But the grades were all trash. Five with white borders, two with blue, and one with red.
White, blue, red, gold, purple. According to the standards created by modern gambling game developers who had sold their conscience, they could be converted to N, R, SR, SSR, UR. The first two grades were practically looked down upon. White and blue techniques, even after reaching 10-star Great Success, gave almost no ability points. Compared to red-grade and above techniques that granted massive stats at 12-star Great Success, they were barely there to fill out the collection.
Instead, the required training points were very low. Especially the white-bordered ones—you could reach 10-star Great Success the moment you learned them. Cheong had already been doing exactly that.
There was, at least, one red technique. Tangseon Talui Mu.
Cheong’s face crumpled.
What the hell? Talui? A stripping technique?
Sure enough, her guess was roughly correct. If she had to score it, it would be about eighty points. It was indeed stripping, but the second character meant “dance,” so it got eighty points. Tangseon meant “lewd immortal.” It was also the nickname of Daji, one of the three great beauties of all time who had earned the title of the worst wicked woman in history.
Daji was an extremely beautiful girl who spent all day with a sad expression, staring up at the sky. Originally a fairy from the heavens, she had been cast down to earth for her wicked nature and thus longed for the homeland she could never return to. King Zhou spared no effort to comfort Daji’s heart.
One day, Daji saw a person die. She smiled. King Zhou, suspicious, observed her and discovered that the more cruelly and painfully a person died, the brighter her smile became! So King Zhou used every creative method imaginable to torture and kill people, all to preserve Daji’s smile. It was a tragic love story so beautiful it remained in history.
Daji was eventually moved by his efforts. Around the time the flowing blood filled a lake, she began shedding her clothes one by one, seducing King Zhou and granting him passionate nights. It was Daji’s special striptease performance.
Tangseon Talui Mu had been created by imitating that imagery.
Cheong wondered if this stripping was that kind of stripping. And if so, where the hell would she even use it? Maybe she should tell Support Stand No. 2 to learn it instead.
While she was spacing out with these thoughts—
“Focus! Your teacher is not a person with free time. We will begin the lesson immediately. Take this.”
Madam Kang threw a long object. Cheong reached out and caught it perfectly. That cool, heavy sensation… It was the unique cold weight of ten-thousand-year cold iron.
Cheong burst out with joy.
“My ten-thousand-gold! You’re back!”