Chapter 183: Journey to the Demonic Cult (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 183: Journey to the Demonic Cult (1)
“So, I have something to say…”
Namgung Su-ah stepped into the room. Chun-bong, who was standing beside Seo-jun to make sure he had packed his bags properly, glanced up.
“Sister?”
“Oh, Geum Mae, you're here too?”
“Yeah. Why? Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s not that…”
Namgung Su-ah offered a playful smile and lightly grabbed Seo-jun’s sleeve.
Gasp.
But that smile was different from her usual one. It was tinged with a hint of disappointment… or rather, she was pouting a bit.
“It looks like you forgot about the wish again.”
“Ah.”
Seo-jun couldn’t help but marvel at his own terrible memory. Even a goldfish would have remembered after hearing it this many times…!
“So, I’m just going to use it myself.”
“Pardon?”
“Why? Is there a problem?”
Seo-jun didn’t dare dispute her claim over the wish.
“No, ma'am…”
The right to the wish, which had clearly been his to grant, was usurped in the blink of an eye.
Seeing Seo-jun pout, Namgung Su-ah giggled.
“Then I’m using it now, okay?”
“Sure. What are you going to use it for?”
Honestly, he would have granted almost anything she asked for, even without a wish. What kind of request required this much buildup?
As Seo-jun stared blankly at Namgung Su-ah, she suddenly grabbed his collar.
“Wh-what…?”
He felt like he was getting grabbed by the collar quite often lately.
Is this okay? While Seo-jun was pondering that, Namgung Su-ah’s face suddenly lunged forward.
“Close your eyes.”
“Huh?”
“Or don’t, if you don’t want to.”
Her chest touched his before her lips did. A soft, mature weight pressed lightly against Seo-jun’s chest.
“Hup…!”
And then, their lips met. Seo-jun’s eyes flew wide open at the blatant theft of his virtue happening right in front of him.
Chun-bong, who was watching the whole thing unfold, stood there with her mouth agape.
“U-uh…?”
But for some reason, the kiss lasted quite a while. Namgung Su-ah’s body squirmed closer, and Seo-jun took a flustered step back…
Every time Namgung Su-ah’s hands brushed over his body, Seo-jun flinched and trembled.
Eventually, she pinned Seo-jun against the wall, and a wet, sticky sound filled the air.
“Wh-what is this…!”
Chun-bong jumped in shock.
Just now, that… her tongue was…! And her hand was in such a strange place…!
While the horrified Chun-bong stood frozen, unsure of what to do, the kiss—which felt simultaneously like an eternity and a fleeting second—finally ended.
Licking her lips, which glistened with saliva, Namgung Su-ah looked at the dazed Seo-jun and gave a sultry giggle.
“I’ve received my wish. As for what comes next… I’ll be waiting, okay?”
Neither Chun-bong nor Seo-jun could utter a single word. Only Namgung Su-ah, wearing a satisfied smile, hummed a cheerful tune as she left the room.
“Wh-what just…”
What just happened? Chun-bong couldn’t accept reality.
Is this… an adult kiss…?
Chun-bong didn’t feel confident she could ever keep up. How could they do such a thing…!
Thud—
Eventually, Chun-bong’s brain overloaded, and she slumped onto the floor.
Seo-jun, who had been standing there blankly, followed suit and sat down.
“Wow…”
Seo-jun had become an adult.
* * *
After sitting in a daze for a while, Seo-jun was finally able to leave the Namgung Clan.
Things had gotten a bit awkward at the very end due to that strange incident. Regardless, he had confirmed that both Chun-bong and Namgung Su-ah had entered secluded training, and he finished saying his goodbyes to everyone else.
‘Good heavens…’
With his horizons significantly broadened, the newly-minted adult Lee Seo-jun executed the Primordial Unity Step and soared into the sky.
Honestly, it hadn’t quite sunk in yet. It seemed Namgung Su-ah wasn’t used to it either, considering their teeth had bumped a few times. Still, even though he didn’t know exactly what he was doing, it had felt good.
Especially when her hands wandered into those precarious places… a strange sensation had tickled his nerves enough to give him goosebumps.
‘No wonder people say to be careful of women.’
Alcohol, gambling, and women. Weren't those the three great vices a man had to watch out for?
Honestly, he used to think women didn't really belong in the same category as alcohol or gambling… but it seemed his ancestors’ life-risking self-experiments were based on enough empirical evidence to be thoroughly reliable.
BOOOOOM────────!!
Seo-jun pondered this as he flew toward his first stop, Henan.
‘But seriously, what do I do?’
A flower in each hand? It sounded nice in theory, but if he looked at it from the women's perspective, he was nothing but a total bastard.
Even if polygamy wasn’t that rare in the Central Plains… was that really a relationship dynamic that could be maintained healthily?
“…Hehe.”
In the end, Seo-jun gave up on worrying. It would work out somehow. It felt much easier to just empty his head and focus on swinging his sword.
BOOOOOM────────!!!
Seo-jun’s figure, now even faster, streaked across the sky.
* * *
It was a grand journey through Anhui, Henan, Shaanxi, and Gansu.
Seo-jun crossed the sky, once again marveling at his own foresight in creating the Primordial Unity Step.
BOOOOOM────────!!
After several days, he finally entered Qinghai Province.
Occasionally, he would land to check if he was heading in the right direction. Fortunately, he was still on the right track.
Seo-jun stopped by Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, to investigate the current situation of the Kunlun Sect.
“Ah, so the atmosphere has been quite brutal lately?”
“That’s what they say. Even the merchants won’t go near there these days.”
Apparently so. Taking on his alternate persona of Baek Seo-jun, he wandered around Xining.
He even tried the local specialty, Liangpi, but the taste was just mediocre. It felt a bit like eating jelly.
“It’s lonely.”
Seo-jun paid for the half-eaten Liangpi and stopped by Qinghai Lake.
He had heard it was the largest salt lake in the Central Plains. To him, it was just a very large lake. When he dipped his finger in and tasted the water, it was indeed a bit salty.
After looking around for about five minutes, he activated the Primordial Unity Step again to continue his journey.
As expected of the Central Plains and its insane landmass, crossing Qinghai Province took quite some time.
When he finally arrived at Mount Kunlun in the southwest of Qinghai Province, his first impression of it was quite intense.
“It’s a mess.”
Mount Kunlun was called a mountain, but the name actually referred to a massive mountain range. It wasn’t a joke; it was truly enormous.
However, even from his high vantage point in the sky, Seo-jun could see battles taking place across various parts of that vast mountain range.
‘First… if I feel Demonic Qi, that’s the enemy, right?’
Demonic Qi felt so familiar to him that he sometimes got confused, but for now, he was firmly on the side of the Righteous Faction.
Rumble—!
The Primordial Unity Sun-Moon Art charged up beneath Seo-jun’s feet.
Target confirmed. Ready for launch. Wind direction? Don’t care. Systems all green. Three, two, one. Fire!
BOOOOOM────────!!!
A living missile slammed toward Mount Kunlun.
* * *
The friction between the Kunlun Sect and the Demonic Cult was growing more intense by the day.
In fact, from the moment the Demonic Cult dispatched an army to Kunlun, it was more accurate to say a full-scale war had already broken out.
For the Righteous Faction, which was already dealing with the Black Lotus Union, this was truly a case of misfortunes never coming singly.
Kunlun had no choice but to hold off the Demonic Cult’s forces alone, biting the bullet and relying on meager external support.
“Charge! Do not let them take this ridge!”
“Waaaaaaah────!!”
The martial artists of Kunlun rushed forward. Pung-wol, an elder of Kunlun, drew his sword, the veins in his neck bulging as he shouted.
“Kill all those insect-like demons! Tear them limb from limb!”
He didn't stop at just words. Pung-wol rushed out, executing Kunlun’s secret technique, the Cloud Dragon Eight Forms.
Swish-swish-swish!
Pung-wol’s figure underwent eight transformations in mid-air, tracing a mysterious and unpredictable trajectory.
“Block him.”
“Understood!”
As Hong-san, the Iron-Faced Ghost Demon and a Super Peak master of the Demonic Cult, gave the order, the demons under his command formed a mountain of shields.
“You bastards…!”
Pung-wol gnashed his teeth and tightened his grip on his sword.
This was the truly terrifying thing about the Demonic Cult. They had built a structured army centered around the Great Evil known as the Heavenly Demon.
Stripped of their individuality, all soldiers learned only a single martial art tailored to their specific role.
Shield-bearers learned only shield techniques, archers only archery, and spearmen only spear techniques.
Unlike the Righteous Faction, which was a loose alliance of various sects, such extreme militarization was possible in the Demonic Cult because it centered solely on the absolute authority of the Heavenly Demon.
Of course, it wasn't as if the Righteous or Evil Factions lacked standardized martial artists.
The specialized combat units of each sect, the Murim Alliance, or the Black Lotus Union functioned similarly. However, the Demonic Cult operated on a completely different scale. This was entirely due to their steadfast, unwavering center—something both the Righteous and Evil Factions lacked.
Did that mean the Demonic Cult lacked individual masters? Not at all.
While they had successfully created an army, the Demonic Cult also possessed countless demonic arts. Accordingly, their ranks were crawling with Great Demons who had mastered all sorts of bizarre and grotesque techniques.
“Get lost…!”
Pung-wol swung his sword with gritted teeth.
Rumble—!
The Great Void Dragon-Slaying Sword, executed at its absolute peak, was unleashed, violently shattering the mountain of shields.
Boom! With a massive impact, the shield-bearers were sent flying in all directions.
“Ugh…!”
“Gah…!”
Even through the agonizing shock of losing limbs, only suppressed groans escaped their lips. As Pung-wol clicked his tongue in disgust, the Iron-Faced Ghost Demon issued another order.
“All archers, fire.”
Swish────────
A tsunami of arrows swept in. Pung-wol’s eyes flashed sharply.
“Stop these petty tricks!”
Arrows? They were certainly threatening. Especially when fired by Peak-level archers who had practiced nothing but archery their entire lives.
But that was all they were. In the end, the outcome of the battlefield was always decided by a handful of true masters.
Slash────────
With a single sweeping strike of Pung-wol’s sword, the rain of arrows was completely cleared away. However, the Iron-Faced Ghost Demon smiled with sinister satisfaction.
“Petty tricks, you say?”
Thud-thud-thud! Kunlun disciples and demons alike fell, pierced by the stray arrows.
Furthermore, the Iron-Faced Ghost Demon was already lunging at Pung-wol. The single move Pung-wol had used to block the arrows had created a brief opening—and at the Super Peak level, one opening was more than enough to turn the tide of battle.
“You insect-like demon…!”
Pung-wol gritted his teeth. Just as he prepared to block the Iron-Faced Ghost Demon’s attack, even at the cost of suffering a severe injury—
Rumble—!
Something plummeted from the sky. It fell at a speed that even Pung-wol and the Iron-Faced Ghost Demon could hardly react to.
By the time the two combatants, who were entirely focused on each other, noticed it… it was already too late.
BOOOOOOOOOOM──────────!!!
Dust exploded into the air. As the massive dust cloud rose high enough to touch the sky, Pung-wol burst into laughter.
“It’s divine punishment! It seems even the heavens couldn't stand the sight of you!”
Patter! All sorts of debris rained down like a torrential downpour. Pung-wol waved his sleeve to clear the thick dust blocking his vision.
“Let’s see.”
There was a massive crater. The Iron-Faced Ghost Demon had been blown to pieces, leaving not a single identifiable trace behind. Instead, a lone man stood in the very center of the crater.
Haaa…
The air froze at the man’s breath. Crack! As a thin layer of frost instantly covered the surrounding area, Pung-wol’s expression stiffened.
“Heavens, my foot. Has the Primordial Lord of Heaven gone senile…?”
The man slowly spread his arms. Fwoosh— his sleeves unraveled, and dozens of razor-sharp threads dangled down.
Shiver──────────
Pung-wol shouted at the top of his lungs.
“E-evade…!!”
Swish-swish-swish──────────
The man swung his arms. Dozens of threads, heavily infused with Astral Qi, whipped outward.
Pung-wol could only gape in sheer horror at the sight that followed.
“Wh-what… is that monster…?”
The resulting devastation was far too excessive to be the product of a single movement.
Crrraaaack──────
The entire area was sliced into hundreds, thousands of pieces. The demons were instantly reduced to angular chunks of meat, while the neatly diced rocks, trees, and earth mixed together into a revolting, bloody porridge.
Slide—
The dozens of threads retracted, seamlessly becoming sleeves once again. The man looked at the hellish landscape he had just created and calmly locked eyes with Pung-wol.
“It seems luck is on your side today.”
Baek Seo-jun smiled.
“There are so many bastards here who deserve to die.”