Chapter 13
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Entering the Cult - A Flower That Blooms Low Pierces Rock
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Languid afternoon sunlight filtered through in patches.
The corridors of the Heavenly Seed Pavilion were bathed in soft blue light, and a girl with deep blue hair sipped her tea slowly while gazing at something.
"What on earth are you doing here?"
"Ugh... Just a bit of training..."
"That's why we have proper times and places, right?"
Geum-gang was getting an earful from someone.
Hee Yeon, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction, watched while sipping her tea.
"You skipped class yesterday too! Slept the whole day away! With an attitude like that, you won't make it to the Heavenly Demon Hall even in a hundred days, you hear?"
"But Pavilion Master, I am trying hard..."
Humans were creatures of adaptation, weren't they?
Geum-gang had grown quite spoiled around Ha Jin.
And Ha Jin always indulged her.
She was already getting used to being scolded.
As she fidgeted with her hands and made excuses, the Pavilion Master sighed deeply and gave her a stern warning.
Her refined appearance and attire made it look like a mother scolding her child—quite amusing.
"Aigoo... Oh dear... How am I supposed to get this girl to the Heavenly Demon Hall in just one month... My head..."
"Hehe, it'll work out somehow."
Geum-gang chimed in slyly after gauging the mood, but the Pavilion Master couldn't hold back and flicked her hard on the forehead.
It worked so well on Ha Jin.
Ah.
The sound wasn't a "knock"—it was more like a dull "thunk."
Geum-gang's iron-hard skull.
Only the Pavilion Master's finger swelled up.
"Hehe."
The Pavilion Master blew on her finger and resumed the scolding.
"Aish! Really! The Heavenly Demon Hall right now is running solely thanks to one person. Do you know how strict Yeo Jin-ok is? What was the Cult Leader thinking...!"
It had already been a month since entering the Heavenly Seed Pavilion.
To pass Yeo Jin-ok's inspection for the Heavenly Demon Hall, they had to diligently attend classes.
From the Pavilion Master's perspective, it was a rare special order.
[Assign Cultist Ha Geum-gang and Hee Yeon to the Heavenly Demon Hall. Pavilion Master, raise these two into warriors fit for the Heavenly Demon Hall.]
The pavilion had been empty for years, so she had to fulfill it without fail.
The pretty girl with deep blue hair sitting over there.
Though her martial arts lagged behind Geum-gang's, Hee Yeon always approached classes with excellent posture.
Etiquette? Perfect.
She knew the Heavenly Demon Cult's doctrines inside out.
'She's just too cute for her own good.'
The problem was Geum-gang.
Geum-gang had never attended a class in any of her lives!
It was unbearably boring.
Her body felt confined.
All they learned was etiquette and the cult's faith—nothing fun.
And at such a crucial time, not enough hours for martial arts training.
'I've got the gist of the Heavenly Movement Formula, though.'
Yesterday... no, she had passed out.
The day before, she had circulated inner energy through her whole body using the principles of the Heavenly Movement Formula and thrown a single punch.
She had succeeded in enduring that much.
'I want to ask Master about it later.'
Lost in various thoughts, Geum-gang looked back at the Pavilion Master and grinned broadly.
Pretty faces always lifted her mood.
"Aigoo... Oh dear... Aigoo..."
The Pavilion Master clutched her aching head and shuffled away.
Ugh.
Late afternoon, the girl woke up alone again today.
"I don't even remember when I fell asleep yesterday."
Talking to herself had long become routine.
Growl.
Even in her advanced state, hunger somehow crept in.
The girl wandered around the Heavenly Demon Hall, rummaging for food.
"Ugh, nothing at all..."
Thoroughly dejected, she scurried back to her room.
Meals were occasionally brought by Jin-ok.
Of course, without any regard for the girl's tastes.
Fish that made her gag, or wild herbs she couldn't eat due to her constitution—those came up often.
Sometimes even uncooked, like roughly chopped potatoes.
"How upsetting. And I am supposed to be somebody...!"
She puffed out her chest with effort, but her shoulders slumped right back down.
For some reason, thinking of the Cult Leader and Jin-ok filled her with fear and unease.
Thump.
Thump.
"Hic... Hnng... Haaa."
Several times a day, her breath grew ragged.
Unthinkable for a martial artist.
Especially one who could control her entire body.
Yet the girl trembled, tears dripping down.
No one to comfort her.
She didn't even know how to soothe herself.
Crushed by the blunt darkness, the girl lived on.
Step. Step. Step.
"Are you in? I'm coming in."
Just hearing those footsteps made the girl's heart ache.
Was it joy at seeing someone after so long?
Or anxiety?
"Hic... Sniff..."
She'd get angry again if she saw her crying.
"Crying again? Where's that composed demeanor...?"
"Sorry... I'm sorry."
"I'll come tomorrow. Be quiet then."
"No. Don't go! I don't want to be alone today. I won't cry. Please don't go."
"Enough. Stop it and go to your bedroom. A guest is coming soon; at least clean up."
"Got it. Hehe... Don't go. I'm sorry."
Even to sharp retorts, the girl just kept apologizing, knowing nothing.
Forcing a smile.
Clutching her chest.
Gasping for breath, oblivious to everything.
And so, trembling, she retreated to her room.
"What a hassle."
Jin-ok sighed deeply and began sweeping away the spiderwebs and dust from the Heavenly Demon Hall, bit by bit.
Bam, bam, bam.
Someone approached with footsteps so heavy they cratered the floor.
For the residence of the Cult Leader, who held the highest authority in the current Heavenly Demon Cult, it was utterly irreverent.
"Cult Leader! Come out! Cult Leader!"
With an expression unfit for her fairy-like beauty, she bellowed for the Cult Leader.
"Left Envoy, what is the meaning of—!"
The warriors guarding the Cult Leader's residence tried to block her, but she shoved them aside without a care.
They were elite warriors of the Heavenly Demon Cult, befitting their role as the Cult Leader's guards.
Yet they crumpled one after another, unable to withstand her slender wrists.
Ha Jin, the Left Envoy, stormed in with uncharacteristic fury.
'How dare she...! How dare...!'
"Come out! Now!"
As the maids in the Cult Leader's residence fidgeted anxiously, Ha Jin smashed through the door and barged into the study.
"Left Envoy."
The beauty with violet eyes sat at her desk, flipping through stacks of books one by one.
"Cult Leader, explain this at once."
Of course, this wasn't really Ha Jin's business.
She approached the Cult Leader with enough force to blow away the entire study.
"Hm? Upset because I didn't reply to your letter?"
"You...!"
The Cult Leader responded so nonchalantly, as if she truly had no idea.
Ha Jin lacked the patience to endure it.
With raw power surging from her mighty frame, she swept the scattered books on the floor flying.
"Why is my disciple going to the Heavenly Demon Hall? At this time of all times!"
"Mm. Why the anger, Left Envoy? Isn't the Heavenly Demon Hall an infinite honor for you all?"
"For you all? Apparently not for you, Cult Leader. Do you know my disciple's age?"
"Well, past puberty? She looks about there. You've raised her well."
Unlike Ha Jin's rage, the Cult Leader impassively picked up the fallen books and flipped through them again.
"She hasn't even reached that yet! What are you doing to that young child...! Left Envoy? Do you think this makes any sense?"
"Didn't you say you'd try raising her as the next Left Envoy? Hm?"
The Cult Leader gazed at Ha Jin with her enigmatic eyes, but unlike with the two girls, it had no effect on the Left Envoy.
"I said I'd try raising her. Did I say make her Left Envoy right now? In the current Heavenly Mountains! Not even past puberty, and to the Heavenly Demon Hall? Have you lost your mind?"
"You're crossing the line."
A sharp glint flickered in her hitherto bored eyes.
Even for 'that' Left Envoy.
Authority was necessary.
"You crossed it first!"
For nearly a century, the Heavenly Demon Cult had been split between factions following the Heavenly Demon and those following the Cult Leader.
Faith versus pragmatism.
The weak Heavenly Demons couldn't grow their faction or check the Cult Leaders amid the dilemma of what to choose.
Just as the Heavenly Demon's authority was fading...
The current Heavenly Demon had utterly erased the Podal Palace.
Overwhelming force.
Its ripple effect was so immense that the Heavenly Demon faction regained strength.
But the cult already revolved around the Cult Leader.
It tilted toward her desires, moved in the direction she looked.
The balance held only thanks to the Left and Right Envoys.
'In that situation...!'
Placing a powerless one in the Left Envoy position was purely political maneuvering.
"Trying to claim legitimacy by taking my disciple...! Ridiculous...!"
Even the Right Envoy...!
It wouldn't be strange if they vanished without a trace.
Making the Left and Right Envoys—proxies for the Heavenly Demon—puppets.
It could only be heard as dismissing all their authority.
"A majority of the elders have already agreed. I can't stop it now."
"These senile old fools...!"
"Still, out of respect for you, I chose the South Heaven daughter and your disciple..."
"Shut up!"
Fist.
A fist hurtled toward the Cult Leader.
Cracks spiderwebbed across what seemed a sturdy wall, threatening total collapse.
The Cult Leader merely tilted her head to dodge, showing no other reaction.
"You've grown stronger."
"Cult Leader...!"
"I know we're a bad matchup. Let's part peacefully."
Ha Jin couldn't contain her boiling rage, but fighting the Cult Leader here meant she wouldn't win even five out of a hundred times.
Like the Left and Right Envoys assisting the Heavenly Demon, the Cult Leader's two protectors would soon arrive from who-knows-where.
Even enduring against the Cult Leader was a guaranteed loss.
And as the Cult Leader said, things couldn't be stopped anymore.
'If a majority of the elders agreed...'
It meant even the neutral elders had flipped.
Grip.
Her fist clenched.
She wanted to eliminate every hardship for that lovable child.
As her master...!
Ha Jin was a master who had refined the Golden Body Art to the sixth stage.
Her mental fortitude matched her diamond-like physique, unmatched by others.
Yet that child she brought two years ago.
A tiny chink in Ha Jin's heart.
Responsibility and guilt.
The Cult Leader understood human emotions.
"Left Envoy. Let's make a deal."
Violets bloomed anew in the Cult Leader's eyes, as if she had been waiting.
For a full day, the Left Envoy and Cult Leader didn't emerge from the study.
Only faint violet light seeped out; not even the smallest sound leaked.
And half a month later.
The Left Envoy stirred up bloodshed against the Kunlun daoists somewhere in the Kunlun Mountains and then vanished.