Chapter 72: Pretending to be a Cultist
The elder paced restlessly around the room on the eve of the family head meeting. His shadow, flickering in the unsteady candlelight, darted wildly across the walls.
"...Sado Hwan. Sado Hwan. To think he was truly at the Super Peak."
By the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's rankings alone, Sado Hwan was 23rd.
But among the cult's higher-ups, few took such rumors at face value. The Sado family members were especially skeptical.
It couldn't be helped.
Those with power always flaunted it. This was especially true in the cult, where the supremacy of the strong was doctrine.
Yet Sado Hwan never did. He lived half in seclusion in his quarters, and no one had ever seen him train.
Sado Hwan only emerged at Sado Gwang's side. Even at Sado Gwang's birthday banquet, instead of performing a sword dance like a proper warrior, he'd played the flute.
'If he was truly that strong, he wouldn't have groveled so pathetically before Sado Gwang.'
The elder still remembered it vividly: Sado Hwan clinging to Sado Gwang afterward like a dog begging for jerky.
So doubt was inevitable. Whether Sado Hwan truly possessed martial prowess befitting rank 23.
With Sado Gwang around, casually devising unimaginable schemes, suspicions that Sado Hwan might be a fraud ran deeper within the Sado family than anywhere else.
'But he was the real deal.'
Sado Hwan proved it in a single day.
He levitated his sword to demonstrate Flying Sword, crushed hundreds with sheer presence alone, and felled Sado Mu Yeol with one swing.
It wasn't just raw power.
'He's systematically purging the former family head's faction.'
The moment he declared his bid for family head, that faction was being swept clean. Though many experts had defected in the process.
'Even the Black Shadow Corps vice-commander is at Super Peak.'
A few defectors meant nothing. The family's forces had only grown stronger.
'He was sharpening his blade under Sado Gwang, biding his time to venture into the jianghu.'
History showed that entrusting a powerful army to a general for a subjugation always bred rebellion.
The problem was.
'Whether that rebellion reaches me.'
Up to the night before the family head meeting, Sado Hwan hadn't touched the elder faction. It revealed his intent.
Submit willingly.
Krik!
'Insolent pup...'
The cult revered the strong, yes. But it didn't demand how one became strong. Though standing alone in absolute supremacy like the Heavenly Demon was the highest virtue, it didn't reject strength through alliances and factions.
"Elder One, Elder One!"
Thus, the news brought by Sixth Elder in the dead of night perked up First Elder's ears.
"What? Is that true?"
"It's true! Here's the letter as proof."
First Elder took the letter from Sixth Elder. A distinctive seal marked the envelope. He broke it open and read.
Will you be the tail of the dragon,
or the head of the snake?
The moment First Elder finished reading—
Whoosh!
Flames erupted from the letter, reducing it to ash in an instant. Samadhi True Fire, ignited by internal energy.
"The tail of a dragon or the head of a snake."
For a cultist, the choice was obvious.
"Humiliating. But..."
It was humiliating.
Yet if he endured this brief shame, First Elder believed he could nurture the snake back into a dragon.
"Sixth Elder."
"Yes."
"Who besides you knows of this?"
"Only you and I, Elder."
"Good. If things go well, you'll be the family's top elder."
"...!?"
Sixth Elder's eyes widened like saucers at First Elder's words.
"I pledge my utmost loyalty, Elder One!"
"And I ask for your support until the end."
Watching it all was Yang Sang-gun-ja.
Having seen and heard their collusion, Sa Wol quietly rose.
Sado Hwan had said the elders surely had plans, so just observe. And he was right.
'To crush them all at once. Of course—he's not one to let them off easily.'
Without a sound or sign, she vanished.
The day of the family head inauguration dawned.
Objectively, it was monumental. Taking the helm of a colossal family with over 4,000 direct members.
And this wasn't just any family.
One of the six great families—Mado Yukga—leading a hundred thousand cultists. With countless businesses, it was a martial world conglomerate, filthy rich.
Becoming its head.
Yet I wasn't particularly tense. How could I be? It wasn't really my affair, after all. Which meant—
[Fix your collar a bit! It's slightly crooked, isn't it?]
Even Pa Cheon, who'd claimed nonchalance about the inauguration, had been fussing since dawn. We'd agreed not to wake me at night unless it was an emergency after the last incident, yet here he was before sunrise.
"The inauguration's just being folded into the meeting anyway. No big ceremony."
[If you want to use my body like that, get out now!]
"I want to."
I sighed heavily.
Last night, Sa Wol reported that First and Sixth Elders were scheming together.
She seemed subtly expectant, assuming I'd prepared countermeasures.
'If I knew that, I'd be Sado Gwang.'
I'm just a fanboy of this Murim Returner world, not a genius. I can't predict moves like some cheat user.
Of course, fandom gives me a rough idea of their plays.
'Obviously something cooked up at the Six Families Conference.'
The gathering of the Mado Yukga heads: the Six Families Conference.
The alliance handling the cult's major and minor affairs.
The Heavenly Demon reigns but doesn't rule. As the spiritual pillar and absolute sovereign, she sets the direction but doesn't meddle in operations.
Those are left to the Mado Yukga—a sort of council.
'Though far more brutal than in the real world.'
Even there, they claw for interests, but they don't attempt assassinations or clan exterminations to pass policies.
Here, they do.
'And most of it was the Sado family's doing.'
Sado Gwang's accumulated karma was too vast to predict how it'd explode. First Elder's scheme was surely tied to it.
[First Elder wouldn't do something so foolish. Nearing seventy, a man with few days left wouldn't step forward lightly.]
'Yeah. He would.'
[How can you be sure?]
Because he did in Murim Returner.
In the original, Sado Gwang exits cleanly(?) via illness. Amid the chaos, First Elder reveals his ambition for family head.
Only to bow out anticlimactically to acute heart failure from old age.
I had to agree with Pa Cheon on one thing: few days left indeed.
Anyway.
Right now, my reliable assets were human weapon Sa Wol, Tak Horak, and the Black Shadow Corps.
'That should suffice in most cases.'
Having absorbed Dok Ma's Demon Shadow Pills, the Black Shadow Corps was now the Sado family's strongest force. With vice-commander Sa Wol to boot.
Only fellow Super Peak experts could check Sa Wol. Even then, she'd likely overpower most—canonically, the one figure daring enough to defy even the Heavenly Demon.
What if another family's Super Peak shows? Unlikely—they rarely take the front lines. Super Peak was strategic weaponry, like nukes. Deploying one meant total war, fight to the death.
Thus, Super Peaks seldom clashed directly. Rankings were more merit-based contributions to the cult than pure power.
That's how Sado Gwang could casually slot Sado Hwan at 23.
Worst case, we'd dodge it. The issue was handling whatever curveballs arose with my wits alone.
"Let's go."
Family head meeting time arrived.
I stepped out from Black Shadow Pavilion toward the Family Head Hall.
[Multiple presences detected.]
'Enemies?'
[Doesn't seem so. Check it out.]
At Pa Cheon's words, I tilted my head and emerged.
From my path to the hall, warriors lined both sides in formation.
"Hail the Family Head!"
Peak-realm warriors bellowed in unison. Startled birds flapped skyward in a flurry.
I'd explicitly said no fanfare due to the noise, but the culprit was obvious.
Striding through the ranks to stand before the hall: Tak Horak. I'd worked him overtime yesterday, yet his eyes shone clearest, face beaming with pride. Beside him, Sa Wol shook her head wearily.
"Family Head! A word for us, please!"
At Tak Horak's call, the warriors' eyes gleamed.
Made sense—regardless of head faction or elder faction, Sado family grunts embodied cultist identity.
Worshippers of the strong, through and through.
[Y-you monster! Say something!]
Thousands of sparkling eyes pressed oppressively. Rallying them now would smooth my path immensely.
'Problem is, no internal energy means my voice won't carry to the back.'
Peak realm let you project normal volume afar via energy. Not just yelling.
I couldn't.
But who am I?
Heir carrying on Kim, president of Siksuroong Industries Co., Ltd., in this world. Time to deploy those hard-won sales team tricks.
Murim's essence? Romance, undeniably.
Only romance explains murim.
"Hear me, all of you."
A bit louder, but clear only to those within a few jang. Pure theater, of course.
The warriors murmured. Normally, they'd infuse voice with resonant energy.
"Until now, the Sado family was no true cult house. Its officers scrapped for petty gains, forsaking warrior duty entirely."
From afar, it'd look like mere lip movement. Tak Horak transmitted urgently, 'Make it louder, sir!'—ignored.
"No longer. The Sado family shall be reborn a proper martial house."
Cries erupted here and there. Complaints of not hearing.
"Can't hear!"
"Not audible!"
I raised a hand. The uproar ceased.
"Right now, here—some cannot hear my words."
I levitated Pa Cheon midair.
"Train. Fight. Overcome. And thus—"
With a lofty expression, I declared:
"Prove yourselves worthy to stand at my side, to hear my voice."
Faces among those who heard—and those relaying it—shifted.
"The glory of the Sado, the glory of the Heavenly Demon Sovereign, be yours."
I turned. Pa Cheon trailed naturally, settling into my hand.
'Did it land?' No need to wonder.
Tak Horak looked ready to weep; even Sa Wol flushed faintly.
The moment I opened the hall doors—
Roooaaar!
A roar shaking the cult thundered behind me.
[...You talk a good game. Any cultist would eat it up.]
Pretending to be a cultist? Child's play now.