Blood Heaven Advent
"...The Mandate of Heaven?"
I forced my frozen facial muscles to move and asked back.
In response, Samsik, still kneeling in the middle of the living room, nodded with an expression of immense pride.
"Yes. For now, we've narrowed the applicants down to a vanguard of one thousand. Every one of them volunteered of their own accord, wishing to repay their debt to you, Cult Leader."
Watching Samsik say this with such a bright, innocent face, I pressed a hand to my forehead.
One thousand.
Hyeolnoe was still there, so it wasn't as though the entire martial force had crossed over—which meant the number included not just the warriors but ordinary members of the Blood Cult as well.
Granted, even those outside the martial ranks were all extraordinarily gifted, but a thousand was not a number I could take lightly.
"Brother-in-law. Please tell me those people aren't all coming here."
My brother-in-law, who had been listening beside me, couldn't hide his flustered expression as he asked.
Honestly, even a thousand was not beyond what we could handle.
The mana stones we had disposed of through Kang Iseol recently alone had brought in an enormous sum, and anyone belonging to the Blood Cult would surely earn their keep many times over.
My concern wasn't about housing them. It lay somewhere far more fundamental.
"Samsik."
"Yes, Cult Leader."
"Those thousand people crossed over—and nothing happened?"
When I alone had crossed over, China had attacked without so much as a by-your-leave, and it had been the same when Samsik arrived.
Not that it was strange. Beings emerging from gates were typically hostile to humanity, and of all places, the gate I'd connected opened right in the heart of China's capital. Anyone could have predicted the chaos that would erupt when a thousand Blood Cult members appeared in that city.
"W-well. They attacked first, so... there was a bit of a scuffle."
"..."
"But rest assured. There was not a single injury among our people."
I couldn't help but sigh at Samsik's report. I understood well enough that "not a single injury" was being counted from the Blood Cult's side.
"So. How many of them?"
"...I-I don't think all that many died?"
Samsik answered my question with an awkward smile, and I could roughly picture the hellish scene that had unfolded before the Beijing gate.
Why on earth did I put him in charge of this?
The thought crossed my mind, but at the same time, I supposed it had worked out for the best. After all, part of the reason I'd wanted to bring the people of Murim over was to show the bastards who kept eyeing everything around me the overwhelming gap in power.
And there was no more reliable method than a demonstration of force.
"So, who exactly came over?"
"That would be Strategist Hyeolnoe, Gwanghyeoljon, the Blood Demon Guard, the warriors of the Blood Shadow Hall, and a portion of the Blood Heavenly Cult's members."
My mind raced at Samsik's answer.
Hyeolnoe. The fact that the old man had come along was, if anything, a relief. Gwanghyeoljon and his bloodthirsty nature tagging along was a concern, but with that old serpent Hyeolnoe present, the situation would be more than manageable.
"Oh, and it was also Strategist Hyeolnoe who stopped the enemy's casualties from growing any worse."
I nodded slowly. Knowing the old man's character, he was far more likely to exploit the situation and wring every possible concession from them than to indulge in wanton slaughter.
Having roughly organized the situation in my head, I rose from my seat and looked at my brother-in-law and the rest of the family.
"I, uh... I need to make a quick trip to China."
"W-what? Just like that?"
Startled, my brother-in-law asked, but having already heard the gist of the situation, he showed no intention of stopping me.
"Samsik. Go and tell Hyeolnoe that I'm coming personally."
"At once."
At my words, Samsik swiftly conjured one of those sliding doors in midair.
That really does look convenient.
I frowned slightly as I watched the door he'd made. The ability he'd acquired was undeniably useful, but it had the fatal limitation that only he could pass through it.
Considering the gravity of the situation, I needed to get to China as well—but the problem was that, as when I'd come to Korea, I'd be stuck boarding a plane.
"Oh! Kamikakushi's Door? Huh? You got that?"
That was when an unexpected voice rang out. Han Chaeyun, who had been quietly observing until then, was staring at Samsik's door with an expression of pure wonder.
"You know about that ability?"
I held Samsik briefly at the threshold and turned to Han Chaeyun.
"Yes. Spatial displacement abilities overlap considerably with my field of research. But wait—isn't that definitely the power that Kuroda Sho guy from Japan had?"
"That bastard's been dead for a while now."
"Really? Then... would you mind if I took a closer look at this?"
Her eyes glittering, Han Chaeyun began examining the sliding door. Then she reached out her hand toward it—but just as had happened with me, her hand merely churned the empty air, exerting no influence whatsoever on the door.
"No use. This door apparently can't be crossed by anyone but Samsik."
"Huh? That shouldn't be possible?"
I couldn't help but regard her with puzzled eyes.
**
Beijing, China. The underground bunker of Zhongnanhai.
A heavy silence hung over the conference room where the Party's top leadership had gathered. The men in blood-red garments who had requested a conversation moments ago had delivered only the bare announcement of what they wanted—and then vanished on the spot.
Having confirmed they were truly gone, the leadership had no choice but to remain and discuss countermeasures. Putting out the fire at their feet was the first priority.
"All communication networks in central Beijing have been cut off. Media controls have been raised to their highest level, and we're disguising the incident as a major gas explosion—but I cannot guarantee how long we can keep a lid on this."
At Minister of State Security Liu Gang's report, Premier Wang Jen could only draw a dry wash over his face and heave a deep sigh.
China might be a closed country, but even he didn't believe this could be kept hidden forever. No—before that, he hadn't the faintest idea how to deal with the monstrous powerhouses who had appeared out of nowhere.
"What of the Sword Emperor—no, Namgoong Hwi?"
"His current whereabouts are unknown. Furthermore, the other returnees from Murim cannot be reached at this time."
Wang Jen ground his teeth at the report and slammed his hand on the table again.
It was absurd. They had devoured every ounce of state support the nation offered, then caused a catastrophe of this magnitude—and not one of them had the decency to take responsibility.
"Those damned returnees. Do you have any idea how much money and privilege we've showered on them? And now they've caused a disaster this size and won't even show their faces?"
"...Premier Wang, I don't think this situation is entirely bad."
At Vice Chairman Guo Zhenghua's words, Wang Jen fixed him with a sharp gaze.
"What are you saying right now?"
"Consider it. If those things had been mindless monsters rather than men, it would have been a true calamity. But they are, at the very least, open to dialogue, are they not?"
Guo Zhenghua's eyes gleamed as he continued.
"They demanded talks first. That means they want something from us—and if we can properly manage and control that desire, then taming them is not entirely impossible, wouldn't you agree?"
The atmosphere in the conference room shifted in a peculiar way. A strange hope began to flicker across the faces of the Party officials who had been drowning in fear and despair.
"Now that you mention it, that's true. Whatever they want, they'll hardly keep it a secret. If we promise them legitimate authority and vast wealth, that tremendous power could end up in China's possession."
"Exactly. We should simply use this opportunity to discard that trash calling itself the Murim Branch Association and hand over the privileges we've been giving them to these new arrivals instead."
To an ordinary listener, it might have sounded like recklessly rosy analysis—but politicians were, by nature, that kind of creature. Even with the blade at their own throats, the moment a negotiating table was laid out, they lived in the illusion that they could still grip the board and shake it.
And China's leadership, having walked the elite track since childhood and never once strayed from the corridors of power, were especially prone to that tendency. They could not have imagined in their wildest dreams that the group calling itself the Blood Cult—the very ones proposing dialogue—had once toyed with the imperial court of Murim beneath their feet.
"...Then we shall report as much to the Chairman."
Wang Jen did privately wonder whether they weren't all interpreting things a bit too optimistically, but the tide had already turned.
**
"Ho ho. This is a rather fascinating place."
Near the gate in Beijing, China.
Hyeolnoe had stacked up the hundreds of books the Blood Shadow Hall warriors had swept together and was turning pages at a frightening speed.
The script within the books was one Hyeolnoe had never seen before, yet remarkably, nothing impeded his reading or comprehension.
Could it be an effect of crossing into another world? Come to think of it, the Cult Leader could effortlessly decipher not only the tongues of the Central Plains but foreign languages he'd never studied either. So it is an effect of crossing worlds, then?
Even as the question occurred to him, Hyeolnoe's brain was absorbing the knowledge of this other world like a sponge: the history of the world, the logic of capitalism, the emergence of mana and gates, and even the delicate power dynamics between nations.
A world far vaster than Murim, yet its qi density is low and its people frail. Still, the system of knowledge they have built and the things they have created would be more than enough to sate the Cult's hunger for inquiry.
It was at that moment that Hyeolnoe's eyes gleamed with greed. In just a few short hours, he was steadily sketching out a vision of how to cook this world to perfection.
Meanwhile, beside him, an entirely different kind of inquiry was underway.
"Kheheh. I thought that mad dog Gwanghyeoljon was all bark, but the food of the Immortal Realm is truly magnificent."
Gwanghyeoljon was tearing open packet after packet of snacks with blood-soaked hands, sighing in admiration with every bite. At his feet, a mountain of food—apparently looted from a nearby convenience store—was piled high.
The other Blood Heavenly Cult members were much the same. They couldn't stop fetching, tasting, dismantling, and studying whatever caught their interest.
Evacuation orders had cleared everyone from the vicinity of the gate, so there were no civilians to be found—and in any case, from the moment they'd passed through the gate, the Blood Heavenly Cult members had set foot in this land with the hearts of explorers entering uncharted territory.
It was then that the air near the gate rippled grotesquely, and a sliding door materialized. The door slid open, and the Cult Leader and Samsik stepped through.
"I have brought the Cult Leader!"
At Samsik's voice, resonant with internal energy, every Blood Heavenly Cult member present froze in place. Hyeolnoe's hand stopped mid-page-turn, and Gwanghyeoljon, mouth full of snack, held his breath.
"Blood Heaven Advent! Ten Thousand Bloods Return to the Origin!"
Hyeolnoe's thunderous voice split the air as it rolled outward.
"Strategist Hyeolnoe and the thousand-strong vanguard of the Blood Heavenly Cult greet the Cult Leader!"
"We greet the Cult Leader!"
Hyeolnoe dropped to his knees first, bellowing the cry, and a heartbeat later every member of the Blood Heavenly Cult shouted the same in perfect unison, as though echoing him.
A thousand souls moving without so much as a hair's breadth of error—it was a magnificent spectacle in its own right.
But the expression on the face of Lee Jaeseong, the Blood Heavenly Emperor who beheld it, was anything but pleased.
These bastards. Already running through every disaster there was to run through, weren't they.
Looking at the snack crumbs smeared around Gwanghyeoljon's mouth and the books strewn haphazardly around Hyeolnoe, Lee Jaeseong could do nothing but heave a deep, long sigh.