Heavenly Demon (1)
In the faint moonlight, a woman with red eyes and a violet robe slowly stepped down from her carriage.
Her ebony-black hair, falling all the way to her waist, stood out sharply against the night.
"Third Elder Yeonrihyang greets the supreme Church Leader."
"This humble branch manager greets the Church Leader, our master."
As the branch manager pressed his forehead to the ground and the woman who called herself Third Elder dropped to one knee and cupped her fists, the cultists lined up to either side shouted at once as if they had been waiting for this moment and bowed their heads.
"The Heavenly Demon has returned!"
"All demons bow in reverence!"
"May the demon horde prosper forever!"
With a tremendous surge of fervor, every one of them looked up at her in worship.
It was late at night, but several layers of soundproof barriers had been erected around them, so the noise would not leak out.
"H-hew, I didn't think you'd come in person…"
Someone raised his voice high and wept with emotion.
"To see the Church Leader's noble face with my own eyes…."
Another cultist choked up so badly he couldn't finish the sentence.
"The Heavenly Demon has returned! All demons bow in reverence! May the demon horde prosper forever!!!"
Yet another shouted again and again in a daze.
Their reactions were all different, but their hearts were one as they raised their voices in worship of the red-eyed woman.
To them, the Church Leader was no different from a god—the one and only being who could fulfill their deepest wishes.
At last, the moment she raised one hand, a deathly silence fell.
"…."
Her jewel-like crimson eyes swept once over the cultists. Then, with a gesture, she dismissed them and wordlessly walked toward the inner chambers of the branch.
Every movement carried grace and authority, and somehow, with each step, not even the rustle of a hair could be heard.
She was a woman whose very walk was anything but ordinary.
"I will escort you."
Matching her unhurried pace, Third Elder and the branch manager hurried after her like servants.
After passing through several rooms and reaching the main hall, the branch manager spoke.
"Church Leader, Nam Danju has captured one of the twelve elders of the Blood Cult."
A beautiful voice, as clear as pearls rolling on a silver plate, reached my ears.
"He brought one of the twelve elders here?"
It was shocking enough that an elder had been captured, but her master remained expressionless, calm as ever.
Every time Elder Yeon saw that emotionless look on her master's face, her heart ached.
Because she had not always been like this.
"Yes, but…"
"What matters is not how Nam Danju captured him, but why the twelfth elder was caught."
"Exactly. It's suspicious."
Nam Danju was certainly skilled enough to be recommended as the next elder, but to have captured him instead of killing him in a brutal fight…
That was impossible unless there was a vast difference in strength.
"Bring him before me."
"As you command."
Elder Yeon sighed inwardly.
He must have decided it would be safe enough if he sealed the prisoner or tortured him or some such thing before bringing him here, but that was foolish.
Only because I happened to be out at the branch today did this not become a disaster. We almost exposed the location of the main headquarters.
Honestly, he's still too inexperienced to be an elder. He'll need several more years as a branch lord first.
It was a matter of lacking experience.
If the Blood Demon was truly that bastard's nature, then he would surely go after even the elders…
"No need to wonder. He probably planted gu poison."
I lifted my head in a hurry and met the Church Leader's gaze.
Her face remained expressionless, but her tone was filled with such certainty that it was as if she had read my thoughts.
Those crimson eyes, as though they could see through everything, glittered transparently.
They stood out even more against her skin, which was white as snow.
"You are wise, Church Leader."
"Elder Yeon."
She slowly walked to the jade throne adorned with dragon carvings.
"Church Leader, give your command."
"What has become of the whereabouts of Cheonsal?"
The reason her master had come all the way here in person was because she had received information that the remaining fragment of the sacred object had been found.
So they hid it deep inside Gongsan Mountain, those sanctimonious orthodox bastards….
"We haven't had any real results yet…. But I've put all the other elders, except myself and the Chief Elder, on this matter, so I will bring you good news soon."
"…I expect as much."
Then she sat on the throne, rested her hand on the armrest, and propped her chin on it.
***************
A massive current swept through the training chamber.
Wooooong—
At times it roared like a wave; at others, it lay calm as a still pond.
After reaching Ten Flowers, the first thing he did was not go off to find Cheon Sword or investigate the whereabouts of the Yin-Yang Pill in search of some new lucky encounter.
He shut himself away in the training chamber and kept practicing, trying to recover his sense of combat.
He had learned the hard way in his previous life in the martial world that even a sliver of inner energy, even a small gap in martial proficiency, could mean the difference between life and death.
Small things can wait.
No matter how great an ability was, if you couldn't use it well, it was nothing more than a string of pearls around a pig's neck.
In this brutal world of martial arts, the only thing you could truly trust was your own strength.
The spacious room was filled with sun and moon qi, and Sojin sat cross-legged in the center, staring at the purple jade orb he had brought back from the Blood Sect's hideout.
"…."
He slowly extended both hands to the left and right.
The flow was gentle and smooth, but each time he moved his fingers, blue currents surged and seeped into the purple jade orb.
Every time that happened, the orb trembled violently.
As if it were resisting the sun and moon qi.
The orb, which had once writhed with ominous, dark impurities, no longer leaked even a trace of evil energy.
No, to be exact, whatever was inside it was nearly drained dry.
"…."
Ilwol Eumyang Singong was a supreme martial art with the stage of the Three Realms, a technique that began from the balance between sun and moon, yin and yang, strength and softness.
At this stage, Ten Flowers carried profound meaning.
To enter the mysteries of Heaven, Earth, and Man, and the essence of spirit, energy, and soul, was, in simple terms, to gain the ability to interfere with the currents around him.
Even with an unknown treasure like this one.
"Good."
What was more, it had a distinctive nature that set it apart from other martial arts. Not only was it hostile to demonic energy, but it could also purify low-grade turbid energy and evil energy, then absorb it as inner power.
Just like this.
The purple jade orb shook violently and hummed, trying to avoid the blue energy, but it was nothing more than futile resistance, a useless struggle.
At first, he'd only meant to test the purifying power of the sun and moon qi, but the instant he took the orb in hand, the Heavenly Jade in his middle dantian resonated and greedily drew the purple jade orb in.
As if it wanted to devour it.
He had been a little startled at first, but now he understood.
It was artificially made to be absorbed by the Heavenly Jade.
Originally, it seemed to be structured so that one had to practice demonic arts in order to fully accept its power, but because he possessed the Heavenly Jade, it had little effect on him.
That was why, even though it carried the opposite nature of demonic energy, he could absorb its inner force with only minimal backlash.
It sounded simple enough when put into words, but the skill required to control that flow was almost miraculous.
If it had been anyone other than him, they probably would not have been able to absorb even a tenth of its power.
It should be almost done now.
Before long, the orb erupted like a volcanic crater, spewing out the last of its inner force, and every time it convulsed, more than twice that amount of sun and moon qi surged out from it.
Without realizing it, the corner of my mouth lifted in a faint smile.
The inner force he had absorbed settled in his middle dantian along the current, but he intentionally stored part of the power in his lower dantian.
He didn't like relying too heavily on the Heavenly Jade, the divine object lodged in his body, in his middle dantian.
The martial world was full of bizarre, unimaginable things.
He had to think about what would happen if it was taken away or lost.
"…!"
Even after scattering away all the impure inner force, a vast amount of power remained in his dantian, and before long, the eleventh flower bloomed.
His growth rate was absurdly fast compared to before.
Of course, all of it was thanks to the unexpected inner force he'd obtained.
At last, he had reached the standard he considered sufficient for self-protection.
When he finished his breathing exercise and checked his body again, he felt lighter; his skin and hair had become softer than before, and his five senses—vision, hearing, and instinct among them—had improved dramatically.
…And he was even more handsome.
Unbelievable.
He clenched and unclenched his fist, where a faint blue light leaked from between his fingers.
Wooooong—
He felt deeply satisfied by the inner force that had gathered in an instant, power on a scale that couldn't be compared to before.
Now it was time to learn the finishing moves and ultimate techniques.
Still, there was a danger in continuing to train in the chamber.
I might get stronger than I was before.
As I indulged in the ridiculous fantasy that I might even surpass my martial uncle Hyeongjo someday, I opened the stone door and stepped out of the training chamber.
"It must be hard for you, so why don't you go back and rest? I'll keep waiting for Sojin."
"No, really? You look exhausted under your eyes. Go get some sleep. I'm perfectly fine."
At the entrance stood a cute golden-haired girl with hair down to her waist and a green-haired girl, facing each other.
Two women I knew all too well.
Paeng Gayeon, granddaughter of Oho-Doje, and Ju Yeonhwa of the Heavenly Sword Beauty.
"…."
Were they really waiting for me?
"I'm doing this all for you. Please give it up already. You should be training too."
"Oh my, are you worried about me? That's kind of you, but… I don't need to. Besides, waiting for Sojin is far more important than that."
Both of them looked utterly worn out, and at a glance, it was obvious they hadn't been waiting just one or two days.
Were they stalkers…?
Fortunately, they still hadn't noticed me.
I crept toward the back door, thinking it'd be less of a hassle, and just as I was about to slip away—
Ju Yeonhwa's voice rang clearly in my ear.
"Wait a second…. Please hold on."
"W-what is it?"
"S-snip—haah—sniff…. This fragrant scent… Could it be?"
Slowly turning around, I met Ju Yeonhwa's gaze, even from that distance, clear and sharp as she stared straight at me.
"…."
Her eyes curved into crescents, like a new moon.
##
---