Heavenly Demon Cult Serial Murder Case: The Night of the Murder Without a Culprit
Madam Kang did not seem particularly pleased by Cheong’s commotion. Of course, Cheong paid zero attention to such things as reading the room.
“But why are we suddenly learning an instrument?”
“Instrument? This wife said ritual music.”
“Isn’t it the same thing?”
“Do you call swordsmanship mere blade swinging? This wife will demonstrate the ritual music known as the Heavenly Heart Harmony, so you will learn it at once.”
Madam Kang spoke sternly. Cheong, however, remained utterly indifferent.
“Me? Why?”
“Because you stole the Boksinjeok!”
“Stole? That’s a bit harsh. I don’t do petty crap like that. I killed them and took it, obviously?”
“To brag about robbery so shamelessly.”
“Don’t you know the law of the jungle? Winner takes all. The Boksinjeok is mine now.”
The law of the jungle proved devastatingly effective. Madam Kang clamped her mouth shut and trembled with fury.
“……Ugh!”
Cheong grinned and asked again.
“So why exactly do I have to learn this ritual music right now?”
“You have no need to know.”
“Then I don’t feel like learning it either.”
“You dare defy the command issued by Jijon!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I never received any such order. Tell him to come explain it himself. Then he can tell me why I should learn it or just drop it.”
With that, Cheong flopped onto her back like she owned the place.
“You wretched bitch!”
“Hey now. Watch your language. I’m holding a weapon right now.”
Still lying down, Cheong swung the Boksinjeok with a whoosh. The Boksinjeok was a flute forged from a single piece of cold iron. Tempered from ten-thousand-year cold iron, its durability rivaled that of a divine weapon. At its particular length and sturdiness, such an object was known in the martial world as a short staff.
The short staff was a truly wondrous weapon. Once in hand, it could crudely accommodate nearly any weapon technique. Of course the power would be nowhere near the original, but it could somehow substitute for a sword in swordsmanship, a blade in blade arts, or a spear in spearmanship.
“Ugh……!”
Madam Kang stamped her feet, completely at a loss. She had been ordered to teach, so teach she must, but should she really divulge the cult’s secrets? And once the girl learned them, would a so-called righteous heroine truly cooperate obediently?
“I’m going to sleep, so close the door on your way out, will you? It’s better to listen while I’m still asking nicely. My leg’s just uncomfortable; it’s not like I can’t walk at all.”
“Kgh.”
“Not leaving? I’m sleeping now? Sleeping? Sweet dreams!”
Cheong closed her eyes completely. The sleep that had already fled would not return just because she declared it, but the important part was delivering the message. Cheong’s innate talent for walking the tightrope screamed at full volume: right now, she held the upper hand. This homeroom teacher had to teach her somehow. Cheong’s tightrope-walking had already reached the heavenly realm. Wasn’t the fact that she was currently living peacefully in the Demonic Cult without major incidents proof enough? She had only slipped up once with that anger-management psycho, and even then he had been crawling on his belly like a worm ever since.
Cheong’s sharp intuition was never wrong. Madam Kang agonized deeply. Should she report this to Jijon? But she had observed him for many years. If she told him, “That girl says she refuses to learn,” he would likely smash her skull in, snarling, “Then find a way to teach her instead of boasting about abilities you don’t have.” Once an order was issued, it had to be carried out by any means necessary. That was Jijon’s iron command.
“……Very well. Swear on your sect and your master that if this wife reveals the reason, you will learn the Heavenly Heart Harmony. Only then will I tell you.”
“Hmm……”
Still, swearing on the Sinnyeo Sect and her master’s name felt incredibly dirty. So that’s why people always demanded oaths on sect and master. But she never said anything about learning it diligently, right? It was the kind of underhanded thought a demon might have.
“Fine. I promise.”
Cheong nodded. Madam Kang, who still believed Cheong to be a righteous heroine, took the words as solid as iron. It was exactly why her late grandfather had emphasized with blood and tears that one must first know the enemy and know oneself. All scams ultimately arose from this: not knowing the other party was a scammer, and not knowing you yourself were the mark.
“Sigh. This goes back to the time when that Mucheon-daeje bastard was still alive……”
Mucheon-daeje again? That old man had his fingers in everything. He hadn’t only crushed the emperor. The emperor had actually gotten off lightly because, well, he was the emperor. Mucheon-daeje had merely grabbed him by the collar and shaken him from the top of the imperial palace. In the Blood Sect he had folded the Blood Maitreya in half. He had raided the main headquarters of the Sadoryeon, massacred the entire leadership, and forcibly disbanded them, eliminating every faction that could become a threat to the martial world.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had been one of those threats. Mucheon-daeje had slaughtered both the Heavenly Demon and the Young Heavenly Demon inside the cult, then seized the Heavenly Demon Soul from the Heavenly Demon Archives.
“Heavenly Demon Soul?”
“It is a treasure containing the insights of the first Heavenly Demon Ancestor.”
“Sounds pretty important?”
“That is……”
Madam Kang hesitated. Was it truly right to reveal everything? Cheong’s eyes narrowed.
“Stop stalling and explain it properly. If you hide even one thing, there will be no Heavenly Heart Harmony or anything else.”
Yet the future in which Cheong refused to learn the music terrified her more than exposing secrets. Because that would erase every future beyond it. A rigid, male-dominated culture with zero tolerance for failure was this toxic. It was only human nature to feel one’s own minor loss far more painfully than the organization’s massive damage.
At least Cheong had no right to mock the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s current pathetic state. After all, the vast majority of corporations in her homeland, the great Republic of Korea, operated exactly the same way.
“About twenty years ago, the cult’s reconnaissance unit discovered Mucheon-daeje’s hidden records.”
Mucheon-daeje could not bring himself to destroy the Heavenly Demon Soul. It was the distilled essence of an otherworldly martial art whose roots lay in a lineage called Zoroaster, much like Buddhism or Taoism. Though it belonged to the Demonic Cult, Mucheon-daeje, as a martial artist himself, could not destroy the pinnacle of an entire sect’s inheritance. Instead, he had hidden it so thoroughly that no one could find it.
When the cult mobilized its full power to search, they finally located the hiding place and named it the Cheonma Tomb……
“The Cheonma Tomb?”
“It is the secret cave that seals the divine object containing the Heavenly Demon Ancestor’s soul. What else would we call it?”
Cheong thought the name sounded like it belonged to something that flew really well. The entrance to the Cheonma Tomb was sealed by a complex mechanical formation. Investigation revealed it to be the work of the legendary blacksmith Ban Chi. To open the gate, one had to play the melody Ban Chi’s wife had loved most on the Boksinjeok he had crafted. That melody was precisely the Heavenly Heart Harmony. Forcing the gate would cause the entire cave to collapse, burying the Heavenly Demon Soul forever beneath the earth.
The cult had searched desperately for the Boksinjeok. And when they finally found it, Cheong had snatched it away and swallowed it whole.
Cheong stared at the Boksinjeok with icy eyes. So this was why everyone was losing their minds. Damn it. Why did I even pick this thing up? Look at this mess. What a shitty little flute.
If the Boksinjeok could hear her, it would have been so wronged its insides would have burst. After all, Cheong had grabbed it because it was worth ten thousand gold.
Cheong immediately resumed blaming everyone else. And that Mucheon-daeje guy too—if you’re going to hide something, hide it properly. Why be so sloppy and create this entire disaster?
Still, it was a promise made on her master’s name. If it were up to her she would have split her belly open and declared she didn’t make promises with evil bitches, but swearing on her master’s name left her feeling extremely uneasy. So Cheong kept the promise anyway. Her attitude, however, was atrocious—like someone listening to a boring lecture just to pass the time.
“Now, the introductory melody should be sorrowful and lingering. Look at the score there. From the first note onward, the breath must be so delicate it seems about to break, like a hissing, gasping sound……”
Screeech. Screeech.
Cheong blew with vigorous force.
“No, what did I just say? Do not blast like a wild colt. Draw out a melody as thin as a thread that seems ready to snap at any moment……”
“Ugh, Madam, why don’t you try blowing the Boksinjeok? I’m pouring internal energy into it, yet you keep talking about delicate sounds.”
“It is not a question of technique. You clearly have no intention of doing it properly! The mystery of ritual music lies in the player occupying space with the imagery they manifest!”
“The imagery doesn’t suit my taste. Why don’t we just rearrange it to be more exciting? From what I saw, Mucheon-daeje wouldn’t enjoy these dying-breath sounds either.”
Cheong had, in fact, seen the insights Mucheon-daeje left behind. He was the kind of old man who drank liquor by the jar in grand fashion; he was absolutely not the type to appreciate mournful flute music. Besides, the music of this era felt incredibly dull to Cheong. It was slow and, for lack of a better word, sticky.
“The road ahead is long. At this rate you will never produce proper sound even with internal energy. I had hoped not to resort to this method.”
Although Madam Kang had inherited the lineage of a shaman, she was not the type to respect someone merely because Jijon called them a shaman. She was a survivor who had lived long under a tyrant’s rule. She had prepared for situations like this.
“So-yeong.”
The maid waiting behind her flinched. It was the same maid who had delivered the martial arts bundle to Cheong.
“Since you show no interest in the lesson, every time you make a mistake this child will receive punishment in your place.”
“Huh?”
“Watch carefully. Never forget that this child’s suffering is entirely your fault.”
Madam Kang untied her waist sash. What had looked like a simple belt transformed into a whip the moment it left her hand. The maid trembled as she removed her clothes. Then—crack! A long welt tore across the back of a girl who looked about twenty. Madam Kang’s strike was vicious; skin split open and blood welled up instantly.
Cheong frowned.
“Oof. That looks painful……”
At the same time she thought, A kid getting beaten? But wouldn’t that only work if there was some personal connection? The girl’s evil karma level was similar to Gyeon Po-hui’s, so within the cult she was still just an evil sprout. Still, she had already crossed into triple digits. The sight of an evildoer beating another evildoer didn’t stir much emotion in Cheong—
Ah. That whip looks like it has a really nice grip. Maybe I should learn whip techniques?
There was some impression, just from a different angle. Therefore Cheong’s attitude toward the lesson did not improve in the slightest.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
In the end the maid was shredded beyond endurance. Her eyes rolled back and she fainted on the spot.
Madam Kang glared at Cheong with eyes full of poison.
“You are truly vicious. An innocent child collapses before your eyes and you feel no guilt whatsoever!”
“That’s hilarious. You’re the one who beat her, so why are you yelling at me? How is this my fault? This is ridiculous.”
Only then did Madam Kang catch a glimpse of Cheong’s true nature. She was an utterly vicious bitch. Yet Madam Kang herself was no less vicious.
“Fine. Since it’s someone you don’t know anyway, let’s change who takes the punishment. I hear there is a child attending you inside the Palace of Joy?”
“……? There was a kid like that?”
Cheong tilted her head.
“Pretending ignorance is useless. I heard you favor her greatly and her rank rose quickly. If that child takes the beating instead, perhaps you will finally take the lessons seriously.”
What, is this backup dancer number two? Cheong let out a deep sigh. She had gone easy on the old woman, but the woman was really pushing her luck.
“Hey, Madam. Teacher? Yeah, Professor!”
“Hmph. Only now you call me that.”
“Whatever. If a student can’t learn, it’s not the student’s fault. It’s because the professor can’t teach.”
Cheong climbed down from the bed and stood up. Limping forward while dragging one leg created an inexplicably chilling sight.
“Professors these days are all so full of themselves. They never come to their senses. How is an undergraduate supposed to know anything? Yet if you bombard them from the very first class, how can they possibly understand? You’re completely unqualified as a professor.”
“W-what are you—why are you coming closer……”
“Shut up!”
Thwack!
Cheong’s Boksinjeok split the air. She would have preferred to deliver a nuclear noogie, but pretending to have lost mobility made that move a little difficult. Still, even if the Boksinjeok lacked the same satisfying feel, its attack range was far superior.
“Kyaa! Huk, huuuurk……”
Madam Kang, collapsed in a single blow, rubbed her crown like a madwoman. The pain felt as if her head were on fire. She frantically rubbed her scalp, checked her palm, then rubbed again. It felt like the skin had torn and the skull had cracked, yet no blood appeared. It was the exquisite force control Cheong had learned while being beaten herself.
“What is this! To strike one’s own master—such cruel, immoral……”
“Professor, don’t move. If Professor acts up, Professor dies. If I swing this flute like this, your big head will split clean in half. Professor? Why are you sowing seeds? Is there seeding or not? If you don’t like it, why didn’t you just make me retake the class? If you don’t want to see my face again, you should graduate me quickly. Seeing each other’s faces for another whole semester would be awkward, right? This is what they call the chain of hatred, you know?”
Cheong’s eyes gleamed with madness. Madam Kang trembled violently at the incomprehensible words.
She had definitely heard the girl was a righteous heroine, yet the person before her had eyes that belonged to the greatest lunatic under heaven.
Cheong bowed deeply and thrust her face right up to Madam Kang’s.
“Teacher.”
Madam Kang’s breath caught. What kind of young wench possessed such pressure……
“W-why are you……”
“From now on, if I get anything wrong, make a mistake, fail to understand, or lose focus during class, it’s all the professor’s—no, our teacher’s fault, right?”
“That doesn’t even……”
“If you did wrong, what happens? You get beaten. You get punished for the crime of being a bad teacher. And this is confiscated.”
Cheong casually took the whip. Then, smiling brightly, she continued.
“Now, teacher. Shall we continue the lesson?”